Clark County (Nev.) District Considers Huge Bond Proposal

The Clark County (Nev.) district is looking at pursuing a bond proposal to address $5.3 billion in facility needs over the next 10 years.

The district, the nation’s fifth-largest, grew rapidly for many years, but the downturn in the economy in 2008 hit the Las Vegas area especially hard. The district had scheduled a $7 billion bond election that year, but removed it from the ballot when economic conditions deteriorated.

Unlike previous construction plans, which focused heavily on new campuses to accommodate the burgeoning student population, the latest proposal would devote most funding to renovation of existing facilities.

In the district’s last bond proposal in 1998, more than $2.5 billion of the $3.5 billion in bonds went for new construction. If the $5.3 billion proposal goes forward, more than $3.4 billion will go to renovation and replacement, and only $216 million—4 percent of the total—will be used for construction of new campuses.

The district has 357 schools with an average age of 22 years.

Among the proposals the board is considering are a bond election in November followed by one in 2014; or bond elections in November and in 2018.