School district considers ambitious building program

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 | 11:20 a.m.

Clark County School District Police could get a new, $4.9 million home under a proposal to build a new command center.

The proposed 20,000-square-foot facility would be designed to "enable school police to function with flexibility and efficiency," wrote Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations in memo outlining the proposal to the Clark County School Board.

In addition to providing office space, the new command center would include dispatch services and new technology allowing officers to monitor activities at school sites via security cameras.

School District officials are also planning a $12.8 million facility for the construction division, which is currently spread out over several sites. Consolidating operations into the proposed, 60,000-square-foot Capital Program Management Building would save millions of dollars in the long run on leases, Dale Scheideman, director of planning and engineering for the district, said.

The School Board will review the proposals at a work session March 31 to discuss the district's School Facilities Master Plan. Other proposals on the table include a new, $56 million technology campus that would combine facilities for KLVX Channel 10, a virtual high school and consolidated operations for the district's technology and information systems department.

Channel 10 officials have launched a campaign drive to raise $10 million through private donations to offset the cost of the new station.

The school police command center would likely be part of the technology campus, Scheideman said.

Several locations have been scouted, with a district-owned 5-acre lot at Flamingo Road and McLeod Drive, the leading contender, he said.

The district would use money that would otherwise have gone toward leases toward the new facilities, Rulffes said. The rest of the cost would likely come from the district's general fund and governmental services tax revenue.