Rancho High rebuilding passes halfway mark

Friday, May 20, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

Construction crews were the guests of honor Thursday as Rancho High School students served them hot dogs and snow cones to celebrate that work on their new campus is passing the halfway mark.

The rebuilding of the 51-year-old school, at the corner of Bruce Street and Searles Avenue in North Las Vegas, is 54 percent complete, said Rancho Principal Bob Chesto. The new 330,000 square-foot campus is slated to open for the 2006-07 academic year.

With the new facilities being built over what were once Rancho's athletic fields, employees and subcontractors of Martin-Harris Construction had a short walk to the noontime event.

As Rancho's mariachi band circled the small quad outside the school's cafeteria, steel workers, masons and electricians mingled with student council representatives, cheerleaders and teachers.

With the recent spate of rainstorms and high winds, construction could easily have fallen behind schedule, but workers came in for weekend and overnight shifts and are now slightly ahead of schedule, Chesto said.

The purpose of the barbecue was twofold, Chesto said.

"We wanted to show the workers how appreciative were were of them," Chesto said. "I also wanted the kids to realize how hard everybody's working to build them this beautiful school. My message to them was, 'Let's keep it that way for a long time.' "

Ellie Shattuck, spokeswoman for Martin-Harris, said the thank-you luncheon was a first in the company's long history of building school facilities in Clark County.

"It was interesting to see how much the workers enjoyed themselves" Shattuck said. "They went around thanking the kids individually. Everybody stood a little bit taller afterward."

Rancho students have taken a keen interest in the day-to-day construction, Shattuck said. Math students have been busy working up estimates and calculations for raw materials. And girls in the school's medical career magnet program visited with the site's project manager, foreman and administrator, all of whom are female, to talk about being a woman in a predominantly male field.

The construction company has its own close ties to Rancho: President Frank Martin graduated in 1965, two years ahead of Chesto.

The new Rancho will resemble a mall, with an open-air esplanade in the center. The old Rancho facilities are scheduled for demolition in May 2006 to make way for new athletic fields, including a 5,000-seat football stadium.

Students will be divided up into "colleges" based on grade level and special interests, part of a "smaller learning community" initiative.

The colleges will start with the 2005-06 academic year to give students, teachers and staff time to adjust to the change as well as the accompanying switch to block scheduling, Chesto said. With block schedules students have fewer total class periods each day but spend more time on each subject.

The 2003 Legislature approved letting the Clark County School District spend $75 million in capital improvement bond proceeds to pay for the new Rancho campus. Because the Rancho project was a "hard bid," rising prices for construction labor and materials aren't expected to change final price tag, said Fred Smith, construction manager for the district.

"Where the increase in costs could hurt us would in change orders, which is why we do everything we can to avoid having them," Smith said.

The district will open 11 new schools in August, including Arbor View High School in northwest Las Vegas. Arbor View will be the first high school to open using the new "mall" prototype design. Construction work on the new campuses is expected to be finished on time, Smith said.