Summerlin to add new schools

Two public elementary schools are under construction in Summerlin, and both are scheduled to open for the 2004-2005 school year.

The Judy and John L. Goolsby Elementary School and the Linda Givens Elementary School are high-performance, sustainable schools, which are designed and built to conserve energy via increased daylighting, motion sensors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms, energy control and monitoring systems, and tighter construction that promotes energy savings.

Dale Scheideman, director of new school and facility planning for the Clark County School District, said the design is part of the school district's energy conservation effort, a component of the Rebuild America and EnergySmart Schools program developed by the Department of Energy.

John Goolsby is the former president of The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Summerlin. His namesake school is located in Ridgebrook, a mini-village south of Desert Inn Road, just east of The Ridges village. Ridgebrook contains four neighborhoods and a park.

The school features reduced turf, as well as technology that promotes water cooling to enhance air-conditioning performance. There is also a courtyard with a perforated metal covering to provide shade to allow for an outdoor learning area.

"We are trying to provide more abundant shade structures that allow learning to occur outdoors, even during the hottest months of the year," Scheideman said.

Givens, named for a district educator, is located in The Vistas, Summerlin's first village to be developed west of Interstate 215, north of Charleston Boulevard. It is the district's second two-story school.

"The new two-story prototype is ideal for The Vistas' sloping terrain and is allowing us to make the best use of the land," Scheideman said. "Our single-story model wouldn't be nearly as efficient or as well-suited for this particular site."

Of the 16 schools in Summerlin, eight are public.

In addition to the new schools, Bishop Gorman High School, a private institution, announced in May that it had purchased land within Summerlin with plans to build and open a school there by 2007.

Larry Brocato, executive vice president of Hughes Corp., said education is a cornerstone of Summerlin, which prides itself on offering a range of educational choices to residents.

"From the beginning, we recognized the importance of schools as keepers of the community's heart and soul," Brocato said. "Schools are not only places of learning for our children, they unite residents and create a social bond within the community. We continue to work with Clark County School District and private school operators to ensure that the educational needs of the community remain a top priority."

Summerlin has ranked as the nation's best-selling master-planned community for 10 of the past 11 years. It aligns the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley and is comprised of villages.

Community amenities include eight golf courses, 107 neighborhood and village parks, 107 miles of trails, houses of worship, shopping centers, medical facilities, cultural facilities, business parks and nearly 150 model homes.

Single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums are priced from the mid-$100,000s to more than $700,000.

Custom-home sites in The Ridges are priced from the high $500,000s to more than $1 million, and predesigned custom homes are priced from $2.1 million.

Apartments offer monthly rents starting from the high $700s.

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