School crowding top issue for district superintendent
Clark County School District Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky revealed what’s keeping him up at night during his State of the District address on Monday.
The nation’s fifth-largest school system is bursting with 319,072 students and is growing monthly, Skorkowsky said. Since Dec. 1, 1,143 students have enrolled in the district’s elementary schools, meaning on average there are 755 students in each elementary school.
“Right now we have to update the number monthly, which is a little scary. I could build 26 new elementary schools, fill every seat, and still be overcrowded in the Clark County School District,” Skorkowsky told more than 250 people who attended his speech at Henderson’s Green Valley High School.
Schools are so full that 61 are on a watchlist and could become year-round schools, Skorkowsky said. And 21 schools are being considered for rezoning.
Skorkowsky called on the state Legislature to “roll over” a 1998 construction bond that would allow the district to continue to draw money from the bond and begin building new schools soon after it passes.
“Our families and our schools need immediate relief from this unanticipated growth,” Skorkowsky said. “If the Nevada Legislature joins with us to address our significant enrollment growth, we will start construction on seven new schools, and we will open those schools for the 2016-17 school year.”
To teach the growing number of students, Skorkowsky said the district is in the midst of hiring hundreds of new teachers. The district now has 626 teaching openings, he said.
Skorkowsky said legislative goals will also include full-day kindergarten for students and a revision of the Nevada plan funding formula.
“The time is now for our community to invest in our schools. For too long, we’ve been best known as the fastest-growing district in the nation. I want Clark County to be known as the fastest-improving district in the nation,” the superintendent said.
Skorkowsky added that his focus is on the six goals set forth by the Clark County School Board last year, including increasing third-grade literacy, decreasing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates, increasing family engagement, increasing student safety and happiness and increasing participation in career and technical education and advanced placement classes.
Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find him on Twitter: @fjmccabe
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