Schools to open in Cadence

Lake Mead Christian Academy’s original campus on East Lake Mead Parkway was built on a 14-acre parcel of land donated by The LandWell Co., the developer of Cadence, in 2015.

Sue Blakely, administrator and founder of Lake Mead Christian Academy, said the school decided to build a new campus to house students in grades 7-12. The original campus has become the elementary school.

“We were pretty much in a holding pattern for a number of years at our old campus,” she said. “Having a new facility will give us new opportunities we didn’t have before.”

Students in grades 7-12 entered their new campus, which was built across the street from its original campus, on Aug. 17.

Blakely said the new campus has a science lab and art room for the first time as well as larger and more classrooms in addition to a football field with a track around it to accommodate a soccer program.

“We’ve had a football team on and off since 1998 and our other property didn’t have a field so we were pretty much at the mercy of other schools by renting their facilities,” she said. “We’re excited to have our own home field.”

Expanding Lake Mead Christian Academy is going to benefit the students, Blakely said.

“We’re not the kind of school that’s stagnant and is satisfied with status quo so having the ability to expand into new opportunities for our students is the most exciting thing,” she said. “We’re making steps of progress that will result in our students walking away with the things they need to accomplish their next steps post-secondary.”

Pinecrest Academy will also open its doors for the first time at Cadence on Aug. 29 when the 2016-2017 school year kicks off for grades K-9 at the public choice, tuition-free charter school.

The school will continue to expand by adding an additional grade each year until 2019.

Phase 1 of the academy’s construction includes an elementary school building with capacity for approximately 750 students and the beginning of the campus’ middle and high school complex and administration facility.

The elementary school boasts a multipurpose room, basketball court and stage and a synthetic turf play area.

When construction is complete, the Pinecrest Academy campus will span more than 150,000 square feet of learning and activity space.

Lake Mead Christian Academy and Pinecrest Academy are the first two school sites out of the six Cadence has planned, said Cheryl Persinger, vice president of marketing for the 13,250-home community.

Cadence anticipates adding 30,000 residents over a 20-year period, so schools were a must, Persinger said.

“We knew there would be a need for schools and we thought, why wait until there are thousands of residents, let’s get ahead of the game,” she said.

Persinger said Cadence is working with other charter schools as well as the Clark County School District to determine the four remaining school sites on the property.

“We’re working with another school right now, however, there’s no timeline for when it will open,” she said. “Our focus is to open the first two schools and see what kind of residents we have move-in before we assess what the need is.”

Contact reporter Ann Friedman at afriedman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @AnnFriedmanRJ on Twitter.