LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Clark County School District is looking to build a new high school in the Mountains Edge community in the southwest valley.
The renderings for the new campus were shown to community members during a public meeting at Desert Oasis High School Library on Wednesday night. District leaders also collected families' opinions on the new project.
"It's really tailored to support the families of the southwest portion of the valley with an option that is aligned with the innovation also designated in this area to allow for partnership with business and industry and offer families the ability for students that potentially don't have fully baked pathway developed but they can learn skills of how to solve global problems with innovative ways with business partners that can support hat in the end," said Brandon McLaughlin, assistant superintendent of construction at CCSD.
The new 1,500-seat school will emphasize entrepreneurship and provide courses such as content creation and digital marketing.
The school could cost $155 million and be paid for property taxes.
CCSD said it could also provide some relief with overcrowding issues at Desert Oasis and Sierra Vista high schools. The district says both schools are over 120% capacity.
"I don't think it fits the community. I think that we have been promised a comprehensive high school for years and this just feels like it won't meet the needs of our community or our kids," said parent Rebecca Bernardo.
Channel 13 spoke with Bernardo after the meeting. She was one of a handful of frustrated parents who shared their disapproval of the new school.
She said the community really needs a larger school that focuses on math, science, English, and social studies.
"The things they are proposing is great for fun, but we have kids that are not excelling in math and reading, and we can't have that. We have to focus on the basics. We have to get our kids' testing scores up," Bernardo said.
The new school is slated to be complete by the 2028-2029 school year.
Bernardo questioned why the new school couldn't be built quicker than that.
"They built our middle school here in a year. They broke ground and opened up the very next school year, so I think it can be done. I think it's just a matter of, why do they keep delaying. That's the big question for us," Bernardo said.
Channel 13 asked McLaughlin if the new school could be a comprehensive school.
"Staff is recommending the choice option because of some of the things we are noticing with enrollment that a comprehensive may be under-enrolled as soon as it comes online," McLaughlin said. "We believe that having a school underutilized is not the best of our resources available."
CCSD trustees will be discussing the new school during their meeting on Feb. 27.
