LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Clark County School District (CCSD) officials said they expect to lose 5,000 students over the next three years due to a decline in enrollment. However, there is one area in the valley seeing explosive growth – so much so that CCSD is opening a new school.
“You guys showed these heat maps to us in previous meetings,” Matthew DeFalco, a member of the CCSD Bond Oversight Committee, said on June 20. DeFalco was pointing to a map the district created that color-coded increases and decreases of population in the county.
“Where you talk about the elementary school that we’re recommending building, this is the only red part of the valley,” DeFalco said. “I think we hit right on target. This is exactly where we need to be building.”
Members of the committee acknowledged the growth in Skye Canyon. Cindy Cobb, who moved to the Las Vegas valley from Houston recently, has two young grandchildren. She said the volume of housing under construction has exploded since she arrived approximately a year ago. She said she appreciates the placement of the new school.
“We really like it because everything we need is within a mile of home,” Cobb said.
The new elementary school would be located near Skye Canyon Park Drive and Shaumber Road in the northwest valley. Luke Anderson, who has lived in the area for a decade, said he remembers when Divich Elementary School opened in the area in 2008.
“We thought this was just so far away from anything and now everything is around us. It makes sense to open up more schools in this side of town,” Anderson said.
CCSD officials say the numbers show Anderson is right. Divich Elementary experienced a 9% increase in enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year. Anderson said the school construction is a good idea, adding that he thinks his daughter’s classes are fairly dense with students.
The new elementary school has not yet been named and is projected to open in 2028. The project still has to be presented to the Clark County School Board of Trustees, part of the district’s plan to build 10 new elementary schools.
The district is also planning to open a new magnet high school in the southwest part of the valley in 2028 near Buffalo Drive and Cactus Avenue. It will be called Innovation Academy.
