Will vehicle ad dollars spent here, stay here?

Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Would the Clark County School District reap the lucrative rewards of turning its fleet of trucks into commercial billboards? Or would the Legislature swoop in and pick the district’s pocket?

Those were questions on the minds of several School Board members at a meeting last week during which they voted 5-0 to explore selling advertising space on district trucks. School buses, both the exteriors and interiors, remain off limits.

The deal, with a Henderson-based company, could bring in as much as $1.4 million annually. Those dollars are badly needed, given the more than $130 million that’s been slashed from the district’s operating budget.

But member Sheila Moulton wanted assurances that the money would remain with the district.

Legislators “may come after some of the entrepreneurial things we’re doing,” she said. “How do we protect ourselves so it really becomes our money?”

There should also be safeguards that the Legislature won’t deduct advertising profits from the money the district is supposed to receive from the state, Moulton said.

Joyce Haldeman, associate superintendent of community and government relations, agreed with Moulton. “You do have to be careful that people don’t see this is a revenue stream that can replace something that is already there,” Haldeman said.

School Board member Carolyn Edwards wants the district to explore sources of revenue beyond advertising. She noted that when CVS built a store next to her home, the builder wanted to add a cell phone tower next to it.

She asked how much the property owner would receive for allowing the tower, and was surprised to the payoff was $500 per month. Edwards, who vigorously opposed the CVS construction, said she jokingly offered her own property for the tower.

“I’d like $6,000 per year,” Edwards said with a laugh. “Fine by me.”

The School District explored leasing space for cell phone towers several years ago.

“We got a master agreement all lined up and waited for someone to knock on the door and no one did,” Bill Hoffman, the district’s senior attorney, told the Sun.

But Jeff Weiler, the district’s chief financial officer, said there’s been renewed interest from cell phone service providers, and he plans to bring a status report to the board this fall.

•••

When School Board members meet Wednesday for their annual retreat, they’ll hear an update on the expert committee that’s convened to figure out why nearly 90 percent of district middle and high school students failed a new math test, designed to measure their mastery of the semester’s curriculum.

They will also likely hear that Clark County has plenty of company.

The American Diploma Project, a coalition of 33 states and nonprofit groups, set out this year to measure the math skills of students. More than 90,000 students in 12 states were given the same end-of-semester algebra II exam. Out of a possible perfect score of 100, average scores ranged from 21 percent to 35 percent.

Nevada is a member of the coalition, but no Silver State students took the exam.

In its report, the American Diploma Project noted that the test is “significantly more rigorous than most statewide high school exams.” Additionally, “when new tests are given for the first time, results tend to be low, followed by growth over the next several years of the program as students and teachers become more familiar with the content, better understand what’s expected of them and curriculum instruction improves to match higher expectations.”

•••

The Homework Hotline is back.

A joint project of the School District, Vegas PBS, Cox Communications and Nevada Power Co., the hotline provides callers with help in a variety of subjects at all grade levels — especially math.

Call 799-5111 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The hotline is available through the end of the academic year in June.