The bill for repairing the most urgent maintenance issues in the Clark County (Nev,) School District: More than a half-billion dollars.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that 142 schools in the district need major upgrades that will cost $555.4 million.
Many of those upgrades won't be completed for now, because the 320,000-student district has made construction of new schools a priority. With $4 billion allocated by the Nevada legislature for the next 10 years, Clark County has plans over the next five years to build 17 new elementary schools and classroom additions at some existing campuses.
But of the 142 schools needing upgrades, only 19 are on track to have the work done within the next five years.
Clark County, the fifth-largest school district in the United States, has been unable to keep up with its facilities needs after the 2008 recession hit the Las Vegas area especially hard and voters rejected a $720 million referendum that year that would have paid for renovations.
