By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
A group of Moapa Valley residents numbering more than 30 people traveled to Las Vegas on Thursday, February 24, to plead their case before the Clark County School District (CCSD) Board of Trustees for a new gymnasium at Moapa Valley High School (MVHS). Eighteen of this group had signed up to speak during the public comment period at the end of the meeting. They included representatives of various student groups, MVHS faculty and administration, parents groups and community organizations.
In his comments, MVHS Principal Grant Hanevold summed up the aims of the group. He pointed out that over $200 million still remain from the 1998 school bond. Though all of that money has already been allocated to various projects, Hanevold requested that $7.2 million be re-allocated to build a new gym at MVHS. He specifically recommended that the Board look first to significant funding currently earmarked for land acquisition to be reallocated to the gym.
“It will likely be another decade before another bond issue,” Hanevold said. “Given the current economic environment, it seems like acquisition of land is a much longer term concern than the more immediate matter we are bringing to you this evening.”
Long time Moapa Valley educator and coach Gary Batchelor told trustees that the middle school-sized gym in use at MVHS has been the cause of scheduling problems since the school was built in 1993. He recalled, however, that when CCSD officials came to town pitching the 1998 bond to local voters that assurances were given for a new gym at the school.
“We waited for that 1998 bond issue to facilitate a new gym for us,” Batchelor said. “We are still waiting.”
Former MVHS principal Gary Cameron told trustees that the current MVHS gym was a miscalculation from the start. “Rather than designing a high school gym scaled back a bit for a rural area, they just gave us a modified middle school-sized gym,” Cameron said. “So we have a high school trying to operate with a single middle-school sized gym. We have been trying for 12 years to get someone at CCSD to listen to us on this. We hope that you will aggendize this item for full discussion in a future meeting.”
MVHS senior and basketball player, Hayden Cooper put the timeframe into perspective for the board. “When the new gym was first proposed in 1998, I was in kindergarten,” he said. “All through my educational career we have hoped for a new gym at the high school. Now I am about to graduate and it has still not happened. I hope that this year’s kindergarten class will see a new gym by the time they get to high school.”
Many of the speakers highlighted the inadequacy of the current facility to accomodate the school’s programs.
MVHS Athletic Administrator, Hal Mortensen explained that it was his job to do scheduling for all teams at the school including sports, dance and cheer.
“There is simply not enough time in the day to schedule them all,” Mortensen said.
The result is that many of the programs are sent out to other parts of the school and community. This then puts pressure on scheduling at those facilities, Mortensen said.
MVHS Basketball Coach Dallas Larsen stated that he oversees three basketball programs at the school, each involving 10-12 athletes.
“That is no different in size than the programs that you see at 4-A schools,” Larson said. But they have larger gyms and auxiliary gyms to work with. Trying to schedule all of that in our gym – well lets just say it makes my job very interesting.”
MVHS Physical Education teacher Matt Nelson pointed out that, when push comes to shove, the gym is still just a classroom for P.E.
“We run two classes of P.E. at a time throughout the day,” Nelson said. “That is 40–60 kids at a time. It is a challenge to get kids that age to move at all. But it is especially hard when there are that many in a small space.”
MVHS Senior and athlete Kim Sprague talked about how difficult it is for spectators to find a seat in the gym during sporting events.
“We have to cram in pretty close and you get to know people just a little too well under those circumstances,” Sprague said.
As an athlete, Sprague said that she had played at 4-A schools twice the size of MVHS but with not nearly as many people attending the games in the stands.
Kay Barlow, a member of the school’s Parent Advisory Committee, spoke about the difficulties of holding graduation ceremonies in the under-sized gym.
She stated that when it came time for her own children to graduate, sending out invitations to friends and families has been rather awkward.
“Our invitations were rather apologetic because each student only gets six tickets to graduation,” Barlow said. “In our case, that isn’t even enough for our immediate family to all attend, much less extended family and friends.”
In reference to graduation, Dallas Larsen related some of his experience of being a ticket taker at commencement ceremonies.
“It isn’t an easy job,” he said. “It is like being a bouncer. You have to turn away family members who have travelled a long way to see their loved ones graduate. We’ve even had to reject people who tried to get in with counterfeit tickets.”
Safety was also a topic of discussion for many of the speakers.
Local Metro officer Andy Caldwell talked about the difficulties in providing emergency services during events held in the current gym.
“Many of the events at the gym are well beyond capacity for the facility,” Caldwell said. “During such events, if there was someone inside the gym who needed emergency services, it would be difficult for us to get to them.”
Caldwell also pointed out that if an emergency evacuation were needed from the gym during an event, it would likely result in people sustaining injuries.
Former MVHS principal Larry Moses talked about how MVHS has a heritage of solving its own problems. He said that when the school needed computer networking or rewiring or a satellite dish system, the community found the funding and volunteer workforce to get those things done themselves.
“When the district built the tennis courts without lights and told us we didn’t need them, we went into the community and got the funding and installed them ourselves with no cost to the district,” Moses said.
“Moapa Valley High School has long been an academic showplace for the district,” Moses continued. “I think that it is time that you reward that success.”
“I’m not going to go through the long timeline on the MVHS gym,” said Lindsey Dalley, member of Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board. “It would be too painful. At this point we’d like to just focus on an effort to solve the problem. We have gone through all the channels. Now we are asking this board for leadership. We are asking you to help the system to help people.”
Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Phillips highlighted the unity and support shown by the community in this effort before the trustees.
“You can see from what you’ve heard tonight that we are a tight knit community and we support each other in things that are needed,” Phillips said. “You can see that our children are well-rounded and high achieving. A full generation of these students has struggled over the years to keep academics and athletics in proper balance despite the inequity of all these setbacks. It seems only fair now to allow Moapa Valley students the same access to adequate facilities as is afforded to other students throughout the district.”
After the meeting, MVHS Principal Hanevold said that he was hopeful about possible results. “Of course, we recognize that the budget is tight and that we are asking for this at a most inopportune time,” Hanevold said. “But I think that we go our message across to the board and they have heard our story and understand our situation.”
Hanevold thought that the diverse speakers, and especially the students, did an exceptional job of representing the community before the trustees.
“I tremendously appreciate all of the assistance and support from the various members of the community on this,” Hanevold said. “This kind of community involvement is exactly what an empowerment community is all about.”
