Setting sights on sites: Finding land for schools can be tough

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.

Modern Moves

In addition to spending $2.5 billion to build new schools and nearly $734 million to renovate old facilities, the Clark County School District plans to spend $120 million on modernization projects through 2008. Here is a breakdown of those expenses:

Dusty Dickens' job at the Clark County School District is to locate and buy land for new schools, but that sometimes is no easy task.

"There are impediments," said Dickens, whose official title is director of the demographic, zoning and realty department. "I've closed my quickest deal in 30 days. My longest one has been three years and is ongoing."

The district plans to spend $115.7 million of the $3.5 billion 1998 school bond on land acquisitions for new schools -- but not just any land. A map in Dickens' office is filled with lines and swirls telling her where she cannot buy property for new schools.

Small red lines that streak her map warn of faults. The district cannot build a school on land where a major earthquake may one day buckle its foundation.

Swirling lines on property near Nellis Air Force Base warn of noise zones. A teacher cannot effectively instruct students if the roar of fighter jets constantly rattles windows, shakes desks and drowns out lectures. So no schools can be built there.

Clark County has designated a huge buffer around McCarran International Airport where old schools exist but new schools are not allowed to be built.

And mountains block school construction at the extreme edges of the valley, where residential developments now are popping up.

If Dickens spots a piece of property that is perfect and the land owner won't sell, she can use eminent domain to take it for fair market value. But, as any official with that power is quick to point out: "We hope it doesn't have to come to that."

Still she admits that one of about every 20 land deals involves condemnation of the property because the district needs it to meet the ever-growing demand for schools.

And there are school-size requirements that present a challenge.

"We have to have 40 acres to build a high school, and it is not always easy to find 40 acres where you need them," Dickens said, noting that middle schools require 20 acres and elementary schools 12 acres.

A high school requires 292,000 square feet to accommodate 2,700 students. A middle school must be built over 149,000 square feet and accommodate 1,700 students -- 2,080 if they are year-round facilities. Elementary schools require 62,500 square feet to accommodate 700 students -- 920 if they are year-round facilities.

In the next 10 years, the district plans to build 88 schools -- 50 elementary schools that will provide an additional 46,000 seats, 22 middle schools that will provide an extra 36,500 seats and 16 high schools that will provide an additional 38,500 seats.

Those facilities have to be built near the neighborhoods that need them the most.

"Naturally, Summerlin in the northwest is one area," Dickens said, acknowledging an incident the first week of school at John W. Bonner Elementary, 765 Crestdale Lane, where 600 students were enrolled but more than 900 showed up.

The opening of D'Vorre and Hal Ober Elementary School at 3035 Desert Marigold Lane next year should relieve some of the pressure at Bonner, Dickens said, noting that still more schools will be needed as people flock to Summerlin.

Another area where schools are needed is in the growing south part of the valley, where Roberta C. Cartwright Elementary, 1050 E. Gary Ave. near Pebble Road and Spencer Avenue, has 1,200 students.

"Right now I have no site in that area for a new school and no answers other than we are working on it," Dickens said. "North Las Vegas and Henderson are growing and in need of new schools."

But it's not just the new, rural parts of the valley that are in need of schools. Urban Las Vegas has a lot of schools and needs more. A case in point, Dickens said, is a 1-square-mile radius along Washington Avenue between Eastern Avenue and Pecos Road where Walter Bracken, C.C. Ronnow, Robert Lunt and Arturo Cambero elementary schools are full. Another school is needed in that area.

Pat Herron, assistant superintendent of the Facilities and Transportation Services Division, said it takes time -- 30 to 38 months -- to create a school, from the day it is approved by the school board to the day it is ready for opening.

"You can't just point to a desert area and say let's build a school there for next year," he said. "People need to understand that the process takes time."

He noted that, on average, it takes three months just to acquire the site. Design takes six months as does review and approvals. The process of advertising and taking construction bids alone takes two months, Herron said, noting that changes to the plans and other incidentals take another three months.

Then there is construction: 10 months for an elementary school, 13 months for a middle school and 18 months for a high school. That leaves the time from inception to conclusion averaging 30 months for elementary schools, 33 months for middle schools and 38 months for high schools.