Williams wants new schools built on sites of older buildings

CARSON CITY -- While new schools are being built at a rapid pace in the outlying areas of Las Vegas, older schools in the inner city are in deplorable condition, an Assemblyman said Thursday.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee that it "borders on criminal" what has happened to the schools in older sections of Las Vegas.

These schools, mostly built in the 1940s and 1950s, have been renovated several times but are still in poor condition. They should be "bulldozed" and rebuilt, said Williams who is pushing Assembly Bill 368 that calls for an audit of the use of construction funds by the Clark County School District.

This does not have anything to do with the fight between the school district and the Las Vegas Convention Authority over the five-eighth cent room tax money, he said. This is about the Clark County School Board ignoring pleas to build new schools in older neighborhoods.

Williams said the School Board's track record has "not been very good," when it comes to construction, and he suggested there may be a surplus of money available to the district for construction.

There is "lots of talk," Williams said that "there is $1.2 billion more than necessary to address the problem."

Voters in 1996 approved a school construction bond issue for more than $600 million, and in 1998 they approved a $3.5 billion financing package to build 88 schools.

Larry Spitler, lobbyist for the school district, told the committee it supports an audit and would be willing to pay for it. The school district, he said, never looked at reconstruction. "It's time they do it."

Spitler said new schools are built in the growth areas, but the School Board is going to take a look at the concept of tearing down a school and rebuilding it.

But there are questions, such as what do you do with the students when the building is demolished. He said newly opened schools are already at or above capacity, so it would be difficult to temporarily transfer the students.

Spitler said that $840 million of the $3.5 billion was set aside for rehabilitation and modernization of existing buildings.

Some school districts, he said, are considering that if the cost of rehabilitating a school is 40 to 60 percent of a new school, then they will tear down the old building and put in a new one.

Williams' bill has the support of Carol Vilardo, executive director of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, who wants to see if the objectives of the school building plan are being met.

"We support any audit that protects taxpayer dollars," she said.

Williams emphasized his bill was drafted several months ago before the controversy arose between the Las Vegas Convention Authority and the school district. But he said the recent flap helped focus on the problem of whether the school district was properly using taxpayer money in the construction program.

He said it's "ironic" that when the convention authority made its pitch to get additional room-tax money, the school district said it needed the funds for rebuilding schools.

The committee did not take action on the bill, which also includes a section for the legislative auditor to take another look at the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Williams said a prior audit of the university system made 10 suggestions but the system rejected all of them. He wants auditors to examine what has been put into practice.

Chancellor Richard Jarvis opposed another full-scale audit. He said nine of the 10 recommendations have been implemented. The only one rejected called for a statewide controller system.

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