State senator rips big schools

Wednesday, March 29, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state senator criticizing the Clark County School District said Tuesday that building smaller schools will turn out better students.

"Clark County is going for the big bang for the buck," Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said. "Build bigger schools and you will not get very good students."

But Patrick Herron, assistant superintendent of facilities for the Clark County School District, said it must strike a balance between economics and growth. The bigger the school, the less cost, Herron said at a meeting of the state Planning Commission on School Construction.

The issue arose Tuesday during discussion of the rebuilding of Madison Elementary School in West Las Vegas. The school, which will serve 450 students and is being renamed after Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, is part of a pilot project to design a model school.

Herron said "a facility does make a difference" in the performance of students. He said there will be prototypes of the Madison school with contingencies to expand them to 650 to 700 students.

Schneider cited an earlier study by the state that said the ideal should be 300 students in an elementary school, 450 in a middle school and below 1,000 in a high school. In Clark County, schools are being built at three times those suggested sizes, he complained.

The 1999 Legislature, on a bill drafted by Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, directed the Clark County School District to start a pilot program to replace one of the older schools in the district. It also directed the district to survey all schools older than 40 years.

Herron told the committee that survey will be completed next month and presented to the School Board on April 26.

Of the 35 schools examined, Herron said "the buildings in the poorest shape were in the outlying areas" such as Blue Diamond and Goodsprings.

He declined to release the names of schools that the survey recommends be replaced.

Madison is one of the elementary schools in Clark County that was designated as "in need of improvement" because a number of its students scored below the norm on national tests.

Mary Peterson, state superintendent of public instruction, said the new construction of Madison would present a chance to test the theory that a new school would improve student achievement.