Request to build new school denied

Thursday, May 2, 2002 | 10 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council denied a request by the Clark County School District to build a new middle school and convert an existing school into a magnet campus for math and science.

The council voted unanimously Wednesday night to follow its master plan that does not allow a casino to be built near a school. The site the school district sought at Carey Avenue and Hamilton Street for a new $22 million middle school was close to Mahoney's Silver Nugget.

"This is not a good zoning use," Councilwoman Stephanie Smith said. "This site is not a good site."

Jim Bridger Middle School would have become a magnet school, attracting math and science students from around the Las Vegas Valley.

Reggie Milsap, Jim Bridger Middle School student council president, said many of the current students supported a new school.

The council's decision had been delayed from March 27, when school district officials asked for more time to work with city staff to find an alternative site. North Las Vegas planners had recommended denying the original site.

None of the four alternatives, however, met the school district's requirements, Dusty Dickens, property manager for the school district, said. Three of the sites were in the noise zone of Nellis Air Force Base, she said. The fourth site was too expensive to develop.

Bridger currently has 1,300 students and is run down. If it had become a magnet school, Bridger would have been renovated, Dickens said.

"We'll lose the magnet grant of $500,000 now," Dickens said after the council's decision.

School district officials will review the decision and decide what to do about building more schools in North Las Vegas, Dickens said.