NLV seeks new site for school

Mathis Winkler

Friday, Feb. 15, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

North Las Vegas city officials, who oppose plans by the Clark County School District to build a middle school on prime commercial land in the city's redevelopment area, said they will search for an alternative site next week to end the controversy.

City Council members, who are expected to vote on the School District's proposal on March 6, say they need the land on Carey Avenue just west of Las Vegas Boulevard North for a shopping center.

Unlike a tax-exempt school, commercial development would generate tax revenue for revitalization projects in the area, they say.

"I haven't changed my mind" on opposing a school on the Carey site, said Councilwoman Shari Buck, who met with district officials to talk about the issue.

City officials should be able to come up with an alternative site, she said.

District officials said they're open for suggestions, but expressed doubt that city officials will be able to find land that fits their requirements.

"We need 20 acres," Matt LaCroix, an assistant director of the district's facilities division, said. The plan is to build a school based on the district's prototype design and open the new campus in fall 2003.

The opening date is important to district officials because they plan to turn nearby Bridger Middle School into a magnet school for math, science and technology and will lose about $500,000 in federal funding to do so if the new middle school is not ready by then.

Finding a 20-acre site in the area might not be easy, however, and district officials should also consider a smaller parcel, Jacque Risner, the city's community development director, said.

It might be cheaper for the district to build a school based on already existing design plans. But, Risner said, "perhaps a prototype is not effective for an inner-city area, where land is difficult to come by."

LaCroix countered that district officials would probably miss the 2003 deadline if they have to come up with a design for a school on a smaller site.

"Right now we are pressing forward" with the original proposal, he said.