School board told of shortage of classrooms in five years

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

Despite being a third of the way through a $3.5 billion plan to build 88 new schools, the Clark County School District will be out of classroom space in as little as five years, district officials said.

Clark County currently has 277 schools serving more than 255,300 students -- and enrollment could top 400,000 within 10 years, Dusty Dickens, director of zoning and demographics for the district, said. When the existing bond program is completed in 2008, the district will still need six additional schools, Dickens told a School Board working group Thursday.

Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, said the district may have to go back to voters and seek an bond to pay for additional schools, although not before 2006.

The decision whether to seek another bond will depend on the Las Vegas Valley's level of growth and the state of the economy, Rulffes said this morning.

In 1998 voters approved a 10-year freeze on property taxes. That allowed the tax rate to stay the same instead of decrease as old bonds were retired, costing taxpayers about $193 a year on a $100,000 home. The freeze guaranteed the school district $2.5 billion for its share of the collected revenue, with the money earmarked for new school construction.

For the past five years district demographers have been largely on-target with enrollment predictions, coming within 1 percent of actual figures. The district overestimated by about 3,500 students for this school year in part because of the economic downturn following Sept. 11.