Planning Commission OKs new school in northwest

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

To help alleviate overcrowding in the northwest part of North Las Vegas, the Clark County School District is planning to build a new elementary school to house at least 920 students year-round.

The Planning Commission Wednesday granted the school district a special use permit to construct the $8 million-$9 million school on 33.8 acres zoned residential at the corner of Commerce Street and Tropical Parkway.

The school will have a special outdoor learning center in the middle, which would include an arboretum, or a habitat for desert tortoises.

The parcel is big enough to house the elementary school and a future proposed middle school.

The elementary school is slated to open by the 2001-2002 school year. The middle school could come by 2004.

The new school will relieve overcrowding at Raul P. Elizondo and Lee Antonello elementary schools, said school district spokeswoman Kim Vesely.

The new elementary school will have a capacity of 725 students on the nine-month schedule, or 920 students year-round, she said.

"We continue to grow by leaps and bounds every year, and it has been this way for quite a while," school district spokeswoman Mary Stanley-Larsen said.

At least 217,000 students attended Clark County schools last year, and that number is expected to jump to 231,000 students next year. Schools just can't be built fast enough to accommodate growth, Stanley-Larsen said.

One of the ways the district is keeping up with growth is converting more schools to a year-round schedule. Last year more than half of the district's elementary schools were in session year-round.

The new 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 designed to 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 expected to open this month, and another four schools will open in 2001.

In April the commission approved a middle school at Clayton Street and Deer Springs Way, scheduled to open by August 2001.

"We are keeping pace with the growth, but that's the best you can really do with it," Stanley-Larsen said.