Top Owner:
Clark County School District
By Tony Illia

The Clark County School District is Southwest Contractor magazine's "Top Owner" for 2003.

The district, the nation's sixth largest , consists of 289 schools and 1,016 buildings, totaling 24.3 million sq. ft.

The district covers 7,910 sq. mi. with 5,956 acres of land, of which only 4,006 acres have been developed. The district has 268,357 students, 28,800 employees and a $1.4 billion annual budget. Over the last decade, its enrollment has increased 85 percent or by an average of 12,303 students per year.

"We are focused on keeping up with growth," said Fred Smith, CCSD's director of construction management. "Every new school that opens is filled almost instantly."
The growth trend probably won't slow anytime soon. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that North Las Vegas and Henderson were the second and third fastest-growing cities in the country between from April 2000 and July 2002, each experiencing a 17 percent increase in residents.

The school district predicts a 51 percent enrollment growth, or 137,253 more students, over the next nine years.

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The district is midway through a $3.57 billion, 10-year bond measure approved by voters in 1998. The program calls for 88 new schools and 190 modernizations, funded by a combination of a 1.58 percent hotel-room tax, a real estate transfer tax of 60 cents $.60 per $500, and a 10-year property tax freeze. To date, 44 schools are complete, 15 are under construction, and 17 are in design.

"Overall, we think the schools are being brought in ahead of schedule, if not on schedule, and they are on budget," said Brad Nelson, a bond oversight committee member.

One strategy that has helped the school district expedite new construction has been prototype designs. The architectural schemes are essentially the same for each new elementary, middle and high school built, requiring only minimal site adaptation.
That has saved money on design/engineering fees, and created a more competitive bidding environment for contractors.

"Everybody knows the designs so it lowers the profit margins," said Tom Fallon, president of Pace Contracting Co., a Las Vegas school contractor. "You really have to manage these jobs well or you'll be losing money."

From the district's perspective, the prototype designs help it better manage costs and scheduling. For instance, each elementary school is a single-level, 62,568-sq.-ft. facility housing 725 pupils and runs about $14.5 million from design to completion.

There are stiff liquidated damages, up to $4,000 a day, if a contractor fails to finish on time.

"We have taken a five-year process and boiled it down to 30 to 38 months from inception to completion," Smith said. ""We've been doing this for so long that we have a pretty good handle on how to build these things."

He's not kidding. The 1998 bond measure has a low 2.8 percent change order rate with 1.72 percent of that coming from other government entities.

The district also has consultant architects for each facility type: Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects for high schools, Welles Pugsley Architects for middle schools, JMA Architecture Studios and Domingo Cambeiro Corp. for elementary schools, and Kittrell Garlock >> Associates for rural secondary schools.

"The district assigns a committee to work with us to develop a prototype, outlining its curriculum needs," said David Welles, principal with Welles Pugsley Architects. "With the population explosion in the '90s, the prototypes have been invaluable in keeping up with growth."

Under Nevada Revised Statute 338.1375, the district also pre-qualifies its general contractors and their subcontractors for up to two years. While bonding is a standard industry practice, the district additionally requires 100 percent bonding by all major subcontractors performing earthwork, concrete, masonry, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire sprinklers, roofing, landscaping and drywall.

"Pre-qualifying subcontractors has made it better because you now get someone who can perform the work and has the resources to post a bond," said Kevin Zahm, a senior project manager at Martin-Harris Construction, a Las Vegas school contractor.
"The school district tries to be a team player, working with contractors."

The district is already looking to place another bond question before voters in 2006 to meet an expected 140-school shortfall by 2011. Additionally, southern Nevada's rapid development has sparked a real estate boom that has made finding available land for school construction difficult. The average Clark County high school requires 40 acres.

"Available land, if you can find it, is scarce,"said Dusty Dickens, the district's director of realty. "Between the last three bond issues, we have seen the cost of land quadruple."

Although the district has $150 million set aside for land acquisitions, it has begun building schools on smaller sites. The first such facility is the Howard E. Hollingsworth Elementary School, which opened in August.

The two-story, 78,000-sq.-ft. building is on 4.5 acres at 1776 E. Ogden Ave. in Las Vegas. It uses only one-third the amount of land that other elementary facilities do.

Hollingsworth still fits in many of the amenities of bigger schools by going up instead of out, thereby minimizing its footprint.

"Tthe two-story school is more expensive (about 10 percent) due the additional concrete and steel used, plus the elevators, mechanical systems and ADA compliance," Smith said. "A lack of land, especially in the developed inner city, drove us to design the two-story prototype."

The new compacted design will next be used at the Linda Rankin Givens Elementary School in northwest Las Vegas followed by a new two-story middle school prototype being developed by Welles Pugsley.

The district serves as its own construction manager with a staff of 61 people overseeing 950 projects annually.