Courtesy of the Clark County School District
This artist’s rendering depicts one of the templates to be used in the design of new schools in Clark County.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Nevada schools
The Clark County School District’s next elementary and middle schools will have new looks.
CCSD schools are built following architectural templates for several years at a time, and the current models are getting dated — the elementary school design is more than 10 years old, while the middle-school plan is close to 20 years old, the district said.
The district’s Bond Oversight Committee took the first public look at the new templates last week.
“Why the prototypes? It becomes an efficient design process for us,” said Justin Lam, a director from CCSD’s construction management department. “Once we’ve designed and kind of worked out all the bugs with the first one, we can re-site that one multiple times, allowing us to speed up our process for delivery and at the same time we get cost benefits from that across the board, so our contractors and subcontractors develop a standing and knowledge with those.”
Templates also build in equity by having the same standard classrooms, gyms and other facilities across the district, he said.
One upcoming elementary plan wraps a two-story building around a central courtyard. The other is a two-building design with single-story wings around a central two-story wing. Both are based on enrollments of 638 students. The middle-school layout can be adjusted for student populations between 1,050 and 1,500 students.
The templates will be used for replacement schools — tear-downs and rebuilds of established neighborhood schools — and new schools to accommodate growth.
Lam and Brandon McLaughlin, also from district construction management, said schools are designed with some broad needs in mind: flexibility, safety and security, and “space-curriculum alignment,” or essentially, meeting the teaching and learning styles of the times. That could mean more of a mix of formal and relaxed, informal instruction spaces like open space for outdoor class gatherings and collaborative group seating in libraries.
District plans show the next construction projects will be replacements for Mountain View and Red Rock elementary schools, and Brinley, Garside and Woodbury middle schools.
The original Mountain View, on the east side, was built in 1954, and Red Rock, in western Las Vegas, was built in 1955. Their replacements are slated to open in 2024.
Brinley, in the north valley, Garside in the west valley, and Woodbury on the east side, were built between 1962 and 1972. They are expected to be rebuilt in 2025.
The next all-new elementary schools to accommodate district growth are tentatively set for 2026, although locations are to be determined, district plans show.
State talks start times
The Nevada State Board of Education is leaning toward guidelines for the state’s largest districts to start school later in the morning.
Citing research showing that children and adolescents function better with later start times — reasoning that led California to enact a first-in-the-nation law last year saying that middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m. and high schools can’t begin before 8:30 a.m. — the Nevada state board started studying start times in December.
At most CCSD high schools, for example, the day runs from about 7 a.m.-1 p.m. — a schedule that the district put in place last year to create busing efficiencies during a driver shortage.
Though the board didn’t adopt any regulatory changes Wednesday, President Felicia Ortiz said it could see draft language next month.
It might not apply uniformly.
Board member Tim Hughes said there could be some flexibility, like regulations saying schools can’t start before a certain time but leaving the exact times to local control, allowing “what a middle ground is between what people are doing now and what the research says would be ideal. I think we’re probably not going to get to the research ideal, but we probably should set it a little bit later than what some schools are operating under.”
Board member Rene Cantu said he agreed with members who said that rural districts can have special considerations, and that the state board needs to do what’s best for students.
“To that end, having small districts retain local control and perhaps larger districts to be subject to NDE-regulation start times may be something that we can consider,” he said.
Ortiz said the state board took up the item because school districts weren’t doing what is best for students. But she agreed that rural schools have unique challenges.
“I do think that there’s an opportunity here for us to potentially exclude rural school districts from this regulation, but I like the idea of setting guardrails and enforcing flexibility and choice,” she said. “I think that is probably the most palatable direction that we can go.”
Vegas teens get leadership experience
Four Las Vegas high schoolers are Bank of America Student Leaders this summer.
The Student Leaders program encourages practical workforce skills and community service by placing teens as interns with local nonprofits. The teens earn $17 an hour during their eight-week internships.
This year’s Las Vegas Bank of America Student Leaders are Francesca Biondo, West Career and Technical Academy; Journey Burris, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts; Emmely Minoth, Valley High School; and Sarah Park, Clark High School.
Later this summer, Student Leaders will travel to Washington, D.C., for a weeklong leadership summit.
Started in 2004, the Student Leaders program recognizes 300 high schoolers annually from across the country.
