NLV pushes too hard as it tries to pull itself up

Mike Trask and Emily Richmond

Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

Call it a brilliant effort to get the Clark County School District to help pay for the cost of neighborhood development.

Or call it short-sighted and stubborn.

In either case, North Las Vegans have lost the opportunity for a $70 million magnet high school to be built in their city.

It will be built, instead, 19 miles away in Summerlin.

That's what the School District has decided after getting the cold shoulder from North Las Vegas on its plans to build a top-shelf high school in the city, which would have seemed to have welcomed with open arms the chance to host the magnet school.

You want us to do what? the School District asked. You want us to put in roads before we can build a new school? Sorry buddy. That's not our job. We're out of here.

And the district picked up its blueprints and went home.

So who won and who lost in this high-stakes game of chicken?

The only people who can claim any real victory, it seems, are those who would have lived near the campus and who won't have to complain about traffic, trash and other trappings of 1,300 high school students who will now go elsewhere.

Longtime City Council member William Robinson regrets that two of his colleagues chased the school out of the city.

"I think that school is needed so the next generation of North Las Vegas residents can get the training they need to go to college," said Robinson, a former outreach consultant with the School District. "Overall, it's the kids are the ones that are being hurt. It's childish."

The unexpected turn of events played out this week, when plans by the district to build one of its innovative career and technical academies drew a frosty reception at a North Las Vegas public meeting, including icy glares from two City Council members.

Neighbors complained that it would be the third school in the same area - more than residents should have to bear.

Attending the meeting were Councilwomen Shari Buck, a former substitute teacher and mother of two high school students, and Stephanie Smith, a middle school music teacher. They used the opportunity to push the district, saying if it was bent on building a school, it better pay for new roads around the campus.

The issue was on the next night's City Council agenda. But before the meeting got under way, the school proposal was removed at the district's request. The move raised eyebrows of many in the audience. What was up?

The district wasn't in a mood to be bullied.

"There are some requirements being placed on the North Las Vegas site that we find to be excessive," Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said later. "We don't believe the people who passed the bond issue intended school construction money to be spent building streets in North Las Vegas."

City Council members said they wanted the district to contribute only to the cost of one traffic light and the widening of Goldfield Street, along the east side of the campus.

But the discussion never got that far, because the School District had an ace up its sleeve: an approved school site in Summerlin. And because the proposed school would be a districtwide magnet campus, that would serve the district's purposes just fine, thank you.

The Clark County School District, it seems, has had its fill of North Las Vegas.

It stems in part from 2002, when the City Council denied a district plan to build a middle school near the Silver Nugget because it said the school was too close to a casino. This year, the council demanded road improvements near a school being built adjacent to a pig farm.

"It started with us saying we are not going to rubber stamp these anymore," Buck said. "We don't have a map of where they want the schools to go. We don't know until they are way into the process and then they say it will cost millions of dollars to change things."

School District officials counter that their plans should be of little surprise to anyone, least of all city officials. The district regularly buys land for future schools and keeps municipal planning staffs updated.

But once a school is assigned to a site, the wheels tend to move quickly, and some residents - as well as elected officials - say they are out of the loop.

Buck's sentiment is echoed by her constituents, who said they were insulted that the first chance they had to weigh in on the school proposal was the night before City Council was to vote on it.

"It's sad that it waited until 24 hours before council," said Richard Cherchio, a vocal resident who lives a block from the school site. "The tech school could have been a real asset. It was just the lack of communication and involvement that caused a lot of concern and paranoia."

The district plans to open five career and technical academies during the next three years. The first, in the northwest valley, begins classes Aug. 27. Students must apply to attend the schools, which combine rigorous academics with career training in specialized fields. Although some popular programs will be found at each campus, schools will also devise unique curricula to attract students from throughout the district.

Moving the project to the Summerlin site won't cost money - and will relieve crowding at Palo Verde High School - but fighting for the North Las Vegas site could have meant expensive delays, said Paul Gerner, associate superintendent of facilities for the district.

Gerner said he was surprised at Tuesday night's community meeting when Buck and Smith requested the road work . Such improvements were not a condition of the city planning commission's earlier approval of the project.

"We are generally on the hook for street improvements, but when you start talking about putting in full roads and intersections, that's beyond our means," Gerner said.

"It was not a demand," Buck said. "But it was letting them know we can't put a school there without them helping to mitigate the impact on the neighborhood."

It's the same required of any developer, she said.

Smith and Buck said they remain hopeful a tech school plan will return to North Las Vegas, only this time with better notification for nearby residents .

Buck said she has little doubt that some type of school will eventually be built at the site.

It probably come up again, she said - after the city makes the road improvements.