Middle school may ease NLV overcrowding

Diana Sahagun

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

The Clark County School District is planning for a new $17 million middle school in North Las Vegas that will house 1,750 students and take the load off already straining schools throughout the city.

School district representatives will appear before the Planning Commission Wednesday to ask for a special-use permit to build a middle school at Clayton Street and Deer Springs Way. The land is currently undeveloped and zoned low density residential under the city's master plan.

The school site is in the first phase of a proposed master-planned community to be built on 7,500 acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land at the northern edge of the city. The first 1,250 acres are due to be auctioned by May 2001.

The site also borders Eldorado master-planned community, which includes 2,600 homes.

The 20-acre parcel is still in BLM hands, but the agency is expected to release the land to the school district.

The BLM will lease the land to the district for $2 per acre, then sell the land to the district for $10 per acre once the school is up and running.

The school district hopes to begin construction by May and have the school ready to open in August 2001, Robert Steppke, supervisor of the Real Property Management division for the district, said.

The North Las Vegas school is in the second group of schools to be built under the Capital Improvement Program passed by voters in 1998. The program is a 10-year plan that will build 88 schools with money from a real estate transfer tax, a 1 5/8 percent tax on hotel rooms and bonds.

The first two middle schools under the program are set to be open by August, and another four schools, including the North Las Vegas school, will open in 2001.

A middle school is also being planned for Commerce Street and Tropical Parkway and a middle school at Gowan Road and Engelstad Street by the 2001-2002 school year in North Las Vegas.

Middle schools in North Las Vegas that need enrollment relief include Mike O'Callaghan, Ed Von Tobel, Dell Robinson and Lied, Kim Vesely, a spokesman for the school district's facilities division, said.

The new school, she said, will help with growth and help meet the School Board's goal of returning all middle schools to a nine-month calendar year instead of year-round.

"We're anticipating an incredible amount of growth to be coming in that area, and we would like to be ahead of the growth curve there," Vesely said.

The district's current official enrollment is 217,000, but it is expected the student population could grow as large as 231,028 by next year.

"The challenge is, the (Las Vegas) Valley is growing so quickly ... we know it's coming and we want to try to be ready for it if we can," Vesely said.

Diana Sahagun covers North Las Vegas for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2320 or by e-mail at diana@lasvegassun.com