New school designed with safety in mind

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

In her 12 years teaching at Kermit Booker Elementary School, Robin Moore has learned to keep an eye out for intruders.

"People use the playground as a shortcut, go through the holes in the fence, they come at us from every side -- I've had panhandlers come right into my class and ask me for money or cigarettes," Moore said. "The only security we have in our rooms are squawk boxes. Half the time they work, half the time they don't."

After years of urging by educators and community members, the Clark County School District is poised to replace Booker with facility that combines the latest in architecture with the community's demands for a safer learning environment.

Located on Martin Luther King Boulevard at Lake Mead Boulevard, Booker is the sixth out of 11 older campuses slated to be replaced as part of the Clark County School District's $3.5 billion capital plan. School and district officials unveiled the proposed new design at a community meeting at Booker Tuesday.

To be built in partnership by the Las Vegas firms of Perez-Green Architects and Winston Henderson Architects, the new facility is expected to cost $16.7 million. The existing elementary school will be razed this summer and Booker students will share campus space with Wendell P. Williams Elementary School for the 2005-06 academic year. The new Booker is expected to be completed in the summer of 2006.

As a cost-saving measure, the district uses several pre-approved prototype designs for all new schools. But in April 2003, after impassioned pleas from Booker Principal Beverly Mathis, students and parents, the Clark County School Board agreed to let the school have a design that would incorporate special safety features. The requisite for School Board approval was that the new campus not exceed the cost of constructing a prototype.

The gang warfare, drug-related activities and crime that plagues the West Las Vegas neighborhood surrounding the school has occasionally spilled onto the campus. When that happens, Mathis orders a "lockdown," with students kept indoors for recess and security monitors patrolling the hallways.

There are also parents who serve as volunteer "lookouts," monitoring the bordering streets for signs of trouble and reporting suspicious activity to the school office and police.

"This is a family -- we all take care of each other," Mathis said. "That's never going to change, not even when we get a fancier house."

In fact, Mathis said, things have been better than ever the last year, with not a single lockdown since the start of classes Aug. 30. That makes the prospect of leaving the old school more difficult, Mathis said.

"I was walking through the hallways this afternoon thinking about the walls coming down and I nearly started to cry," she said.

The first step was to design a more secure entry that limited access by outsiders, said architect Jess Perez. The challenge was to emphasize safety without turning the building into a fortress, Perez said.

The school's main entrance -- which currently faces east on Martin Luther King Boulevard -- will instead face south toward Balzar Avenue. The school bus lanes and parking areas will also be situated to keep students away from the streets.

The school will keep its Martin Luther King Boulevard address.

"Booker Elementary, the old and the new, will have the same identity," Perez told the standing-room only audience in the school's cafeteria. "We promise you are going to see a beautiful facility with security and safety in mind ... a great environment for teaching and learning, an extension of the community. That is our commitment to you."

Set on 13.8 acres, Booker will have 62,200 square feet with classrooms divided into small "learning villages" that will share common areas. Enrollment is expected to be 600 students.

The project is on track to meet the budget requirements set by the School Board, said Fred Smith, construction manager for the district.

"They're right in the ballpark," Smith said Tuesday.

Catedra Owens, a fifth grader at Booker, said the illustrations of the new school are "pretty." Even though she'll be in middle school by the time the new Booker opens, Owens said she hoped the future students would get big classrooms and plenty of playground equipment for recess.

Trameka Hatfield has three children attending Booker but only her youngest -- second grader Jameka -- will have an opportunity to enjoy the new facility.

"It's been a long time coming, I'm glad they're finally going to do it," Hatfield said.