4 outdated Clark County schools are getting rebuilt

When Gene Ward Elementary School opened 50 years ago in Las Vegas, it was meant just for kindergarten through second graders.

It long ago outgrew its original building after expansion to include preschool, and third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classes. And even with construction of two annexes and the addition of portable classrooms, its current enrollment of about 660 students has the school at the breaking point.

“It just can’t house the number of kids we have,” Principal Brian Campbell said.

The original facility, which opened in 1971 on East Hacienda Avenue near UNLV, also has air conditioning, heating and plumbing issues, Campbell said, and its small parking lot is jam-packed during drop-off and pick-up times.

But relief is on the way. Gene Ward Elementary is among four Clark County schools that will receive new facilities on their existing campuses, with construction slated to begin this summer and wrap up in summer 2022. The old buildings will be demolished.

The replacement projects at Harmon, Ira J. Earl and Gene Ward elementary schools and Fremont Middle School will be funded by the district’s 2015 capital improvement program, which allows the Clark County School District to issue bonds for facility projects such as new schools, replacement schools and renovations.

Ira J. Earl students and employees will be temporarily displaced next school year to Heard Elementary School’s campus about a mile away. Harmon and Gene Ward will remain in their existing facilities while construction is underway on new facilities on the properties. It’s unclear whether Fremont students will stay on campus next year or be displaced, and a district spokesman didn’t have further details Thursday.

Another project slated for completion in summer 2022: building a new Global Community High School facility, with an estimated cost of about $29.9 million. The school is currently on East Washington Avenue next to Desert Pines High School, but its new campus will be at the old Bishop Gorman High School site on Maryland Parkway.

The school district is also wrapping up a handful of replacement school projects at Ferron, Harris, Hoggard, Tate and Sandy Valley elementary schools. Students will be in the new facilities in August.

Two new schools also are opening that month — Gunderson Middle School in southwest Las Vegas and Brown Elementary School in Henderson.

Ward Elementary project

The Clark County School Board last month awarded an approximately $28.7 million construction contract for the Gene Ward Elementary project to Sletten Construction of Nevada. In total, the project is estimated to cost nearly $40.2 million.

A 107,855-square-foot elementary school will be built on an existing turf field west of the current school, according to meeting materials posted online.

Currently, auxiliary buildings constructed in the 1980s or 90s house most of the school’s special education students and specialist classes, Campbell said. And all fourth and fifth grade classes, with a total of about 200 students, are in portable buildings.

Having a new facility will be “huge for everyone,” Campbell said, adding one of the major benefits will be improved school safety.

Currently, with so many students in portable or auxiliary buildings, “It feels very segregated, in a way, because not everybody is under the same roof,” he said. Having one facility will be more inclusive for special education students because they’ll be in the same classroom wings with general education students, he added.

The new building will also have larger rooms and better technology, Campbell said.

“I think it will be more equitable with the areas that have new schools already,” he said.

Other replacement projects

The School Board also awarded an approximately $30.4 million construction contract in March to Martin-Harris Construction for the Ira J. Earl Elementary replacement school. In total, the estimated project cost is $42.6 million.

The new 93,490-square-foot, two-story facility will have four structures, including classroom buildings, an administration building and multipurpose building, according to online meeting materials. It will replace the current building, which opened in 1964 on Marion Drive.

Fremont Middle School’s current building, constructed in 1955 on East St. Louis Avenue, will be replaced by a new facility, which will reopen as a kindergarten through eighth-grade school. The estimated project cost is about $45.6 million.

Harmon Elementary, which originally opened in 1972 on Hillsboro Lane, will also get a new building and the total estimated project cost is about $46.9 million.

Principal Shannon Schumm said in an email to the Review-Journal she’s excited about having a new school building where all students will have an inside classroom.

“While we don’t look forward to the growing pains of construction, we definitely look forward to learning in our new up-to-date facility,” she said.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.