School district plans technology campus

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 10:29 a.m.

Clark County School District officials want to build a $32 million technology campus that would combine new facilities for KLVX Channel 10, a virtual high school and headquarters for the district's technology department.

"We want to incorporate everything into a single facility so that we can maximize the resources," Dale Scheideman, director of planning and engineering for the district, said.

Because the district cannot use bond money for the project, Tom Axtell, general manager of Channel 10, is working to raise $10 million from private donors, Scheideman said. The estimated cost of the virtual high school -- which would offer distance learning and technology classes -- is $10 million. Consolidating the district's technology and information services department would cost another $12 million, Scheideman said.

"We've got the technology department in five different places, and we're busting at the seams in most of them," Phil Brody, assistant superintendent of technology and information services, said. "Technology grows every year and the space hasn't kept up."

By bringing Channel 10 and the technology and information services departments together, the district would save money in the long run, Brody said.

"We could have one big generator instead of paying for smaller separate ones, we would have one computer room to maintain," Brody said. "Economy of scale is a wonderful thing."

If the Clark County School Board gives its approval for the project this spring, construction could begin next year with a completion date of 2006, Scheideman said.