Schools’ bond request OK’d

Thursday, July 15, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

The Clark County School District received a pat on the back this week from one of the most keen-eyed critics of its $3.5 billion construction program -- Carole Vilardo, executive director of the Nevada Taxpayers Association.

District officials appeared before Vilardo and other members of the Clark County Debt Management Commission Tuesday to request approval to issue $450 million for school construction projects. The board OK'd the request.

Voters in 1998 approved the property tax rates for 10 years in order to guarantee the district $2.5 billion to build 88 new schools. Each year the district raises about $400 million through bond issues.

When district officials appeared before Vilardo and other members of the Clark County Debt Management Commission two years ago, she chided the district for failing to spend the full amount allocated for any one year.

But Tuesday's appearance by the district in front of the commission was a different story, Vilardo said.

For the first time construction spending matched the amount of allocated bond funds, Vilardo said.

"In the past they had not been able to have the contractors get the work done," Vilardo said. "Given that I challenged them to see if they could do it, and doubted that they could, I'm very pleased to see that I was wrong."

Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the district, said one of the main reasons for the improvement was the reorganization of the construction program's oversight. Contractors were replaced with in-house staff and the number of site inspectors was expanded. That cut down significantly on time-consuming and costly change orders, Rulffes said.

The district has seen its enrollment jump 76 percent in the last decade and expects more than 280,000 students when the 2004-05 academic year begins Aug. 30.

So far, the district has spent $2 billion and built 43 new campuses -- with another 13 set to open next month. The district has also replaced four older schools with another six campuses to be completed by 2006.

A pilot program approved by the Legislature allowed the district to use bond funds for replacements and modernizations. The district is preparing to accept bids for a $230 million remodeling project, Rulffes said.

Thanks to ever-rising property values and historically low interest rates, the district expects to have at least $200 million more than the voter-approved guaranteed minimum of $2.5 billion when the bond measure expires in 2008, Rulffes said.

The extra money will help cover the dramatic price increase of construction materials in recent months -- particularly steel, Rulffes said.

Tim Kusz, new construction project manager for the district, said general contractors are reporting about a 30-percent jump overall in costs for construction materials. The sharpest increase has been for steel, which has caused problems for contractors locked into bids for public projects.

The latest school prototypes call for less steel than past designs -- a lucky coincidence for the district's bottom line, Kusz said.

"The shortage of supply took us all by surprise -- the prototypes were picked way before the prices shot up," Kusz said. "But the fact that we don't need as much steel -- it's not a bad thing, I can tell you that."