Schools have high hopes for funding idea

Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

A proposal to lease space at campus football fields for cellular telephone towers could translate into badly needed dollars for the cash-strapped Clark County School District.

Similar deals at districts nationwide have yielded as much as $25,000 a year per site.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia has asked the district's business office and legal department to research the possibility of leasing the space.

Garcia said if "the numbers look good," he'll bring it to the full School Board for consideration.

"We're trying to think outside the box and come up with ways to make some money for our students, and I think this is an excellent example of that," said Garcia, who has seen $90 million cut from the district's budget in the last three years because of declining revenues.

The district's annual budget is $1.2 billion, with a shortfall of more than $2 million projected for the coming year. A hiring freeze is in place, and district officials are urging staff to save money wherever possible.

While the district has raised cash in the past by renting out campuses and gymnasiums for corporate meetings, athletic tournaments and special events, school officials believe this is the first time a plan has been considered to lease unused open space.

The proposal puts the School District in a curious position of looking to commercial enterprise to fund education, but district officials see this as a way to trade unused land and the air above in exchange for paying for student activities and programs.

Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, a member of the Assembly Education Committee, called it a "depressing sign of the times."

"School funding is in a sad state when our district has to resort to renting land to make some dough," Collins said. "But I guess it's a fact of life of living in a big city where education doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves."

Many school districts resort to such schemes because they are under-funded, said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a national watchdog group that targets the encroachment of advertising and marketing into public space. However, the need for cash shouldn't outweigh the responsibility of administrators to keep schools free of commercialization, Ruskin said.

"The purpose of a school is to educate, not propagandizing or marketing," said Ruskin, who co-founded Commercial Alert in 1998 with Ralph Nader. "It's understandable that a district would want to make money, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the students."

Although corporate sponsorship or leases are unusual for school districts, officials may just be following the example of higher education, which has long relied on sponsors, donors and leases.

Provided the cellular phone towers aren't required to fly banners or other advertising, the deal shouldn't cause conflicts for the district, said Ted Jelen, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"With a cellular phone tower, there's no real sense of advocacy," Jelen said. "UNLV leases space all the time to outside groups, it doesn't mean the university endorses their activities."

Richard Ennes, business manager for the School District, said he would be thrilled if Clark County campuses could earn cash for the empty air above their athletic fields, what he called an unused but valuable commodity.

Some school districts have gone even a step further, leasing billboard space on playing fields or agreeing to become a Pepsi or Coca-Cola exclusive campus. Ennes said there are no plans for Clark County to go that far -- yet.

"We've been approached by the soft drink folks, but there are a lot of concerns about the kind of message that might send," Ennes said. "With cellular phone towers, we're not being asked to endorse a particular product."

Opposition to cell phone towers has come mostly from parents concerned about health risks.

Parent groups in California, Michigan and New York have fought the leasing of school space to cellular towers, citing potential health risks from radiation. But the Environmental Protection Agency has determined the risk is minimal, and that radio and television transmissions are actually at a higher power level than cellular telephone frequencies.

Bob Hall, founder of the Nevada Environmental Coalition, said Monday he hoped the School District would thoroughly research all of the health studies, and not just those conducted by federal agencies. The community should also be given a chance to respond before any deals are struck, Hall said.

"There are a lot of concerns about these towers that aren't routinely looked into before companies come in and put them up," Hall said. "I would like to have the confidence that those with the expertise have agreed it's a good thing to do."

The cellular industry has defended the safety of the towers, routinely using material from federal agencies to back its case.

Bill Hoffman, chief legal counsel for the district, said the proposal is still in the early stages and no cellular providers have been approached to discuss a possible deal. School officials are researching how much space the towers would take up, and what -- if any -- safety concerns there may be, Hoffman said.

Jenny Weaver, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said the company has deals in place with school districts nationwide to use land for towers. It is too early to speculate whether Verizon would consider placing towers at Clark County school sites, Weaver said.

"We usually look for new tower locations in areas where we've determined we want to increase our coverage," Weaver said. "If a school site was an appropriate fit, we would probably consider it."