The Clark County School District, as of 2005[update],
is the fifth
largest school district in the United States. It serves all of Clark County, Nevada, including the cities of Las
Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City,
and Mesquite; plus
the census-designated places of Laughlin, Blue Diamond, Logandale, Bunkerville, Goodsprings, Indian Springs, Mount Charleston, Moapa, Searchlight,
and Sandy
Valley. The district is divided into 7 Regions and, in addition to the
general schools, it also operates 25 Alternative Schools and Programs. The
district has limited involvement with charter schools and,
with the exception of providing some bus service, does not have any involvement
with the private schools in the county.
The Clark County School District began in 1956 when the Nevada
Legislature mandated consolidation of all state school districts into 17
county school districts. This change meant that 14 separate school districts in
Clark County would become part of the new Clark County School District.
R. Guild Gray stated before a Board of School Trustees meeting on February 1,
1956 that the district would be larger than political subdivision in the state
of Nevada. R. Guild Gray, who was superintendent at the time of the former Clark
County School Dist. No. 2, believed the district would be larger than the state
highway department with 1,300 employees and an annual budget of $7,250,000.The Clark County School District began in 1956 when the Nevada
Legislature mandated consolidation of all state school districts into 17
county school districts. This change meant that 14 separate school districts in
Clark County would become part of the new Clark County School District.
Prior to 1956, each of the individual school districts in the county ran
independent of each other, serving their respective cities and/or CDPs.
When the district began in 1956, enrollment was just over 20,000 and Clark County had about 103,000 residents. The
district would continue to face challenges in the coming years. Funding was its
biggest challenge and had been for many years as it contends with explosive
population growth.
Due to the large number of families moving into the Las Vegas area, the
school district saw tremendous growth in student enrollment from the 1990s
through 2007. Several bond issues were approved by the voters to help the
district deal with this growth. This has resulted in many new schools being
constructed. In some years, as many as 16 schools have opened.
This resulted in a very high demand for teachers to staff the classrooms. As
a result, the district had to be creative in finding teachers to hire including
recruiting of teachers from other states and other countries.
Since 2008, the statewide recession has impacted the Clark County School
District. The District has seen a reduction in the number of students, and is
facing budgetary shortfalls .
Since the district operates in a valley that has had air quality concerns, it currently operates most of
its bus fleet with a fuel mixture
containing 20% biodiesel. Due to
its location in the Mojave desert, there is not much native material that can be
used to create biodiesel fuel, so the district partnered with Biodiesel
Industries to use the grease from area restaurants as an additive. Due to
tourism, the area generates twice the national average of 3 gallons of grease
per resident per year, making this a reliable feed source for biodiesel
fuel.
A student must register for school transportation when they register for
school. A routing and scheduling program determines student transportation
eligibility, assigns bus stops to eligible students, and notifies parents of the
arrangements. It is not uncommon to expect older students, middle school and high school, to walk to and
from school with distances up to three miles one way. For these students, air quality is a concern, as is
heat. Temperatures at the beginning of the school year have been known to exceed
100 degrees Fahrenheit. It is suggested that students susceptible to health
conditions related to heat and/or air-quality receive transportation to school.
To reduce construction costs, most schools are being built to standard
designs. These designs are adapted to the various sites to deal with different
topographies and site sizes. While most elementary schools are single story
building, the district has built some demonstration schools using two story
plans so that smaller sites could be used allowing schools to be located in
built up areas that do not have space for a traditional single story design.
Many of the schools built during the 1970s and 1980s were built in circular
designs. An example of this design is the one story, 9-month middle school, B.
Mahlon Brown Junior High School in Henderson. These schools are usually with one
directional hallways with several different "wings" with each hosting different
subjects (e.i. 100's Language Arts, 200's Mathematics, 300's Science, etc.).
In order to deal with the rapid increase in students, some of the district
elementary schools were on a 12 month schedule. At these schools, the
student body is divided into 5 tracks. Four of the tracks are in school and the
5th is on a break. This allows the school to hold 33% more students without
overcrowding. Tracks are assigned and some preference is given to families with
children in middle or high school to be assigned to the track that most closely
matches those schedules. Starting with the 2010-2011 school, all schools will be
on a 9 month schedule.
The district also will add portable classrooms which are modular buildings at
many schools to provide additional space for classes. These are not desirable
solution since they usually reduce the outdoor play areas and parking.
The district has contracted with Edison Schools to operate several schools in an
effort to improvement performance at these selected schools.
The College of Southern Nevada (the
third largest community college in the United States by enrollment) is the main
higher education facility in the city. Other institutions include the University
of Nevada School of Medicine, with a campus in the city, and the for-profit
private school Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. Many educational opportunities exist around the
city. These include University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada
State College run by the Nevada System of Higher
Education, Desert Research Institute, The
International Academy of Design & Technology Las Vegas, Touro
University Nevada and the University of Southern Nevada.
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