Pinecrest plans new campus in old Sears building at Meadows mall

The Nevada State Public Charter School Authority’s board voted unanimously Friday to approve the new “Springs” campus.

Pinecrest has about 7,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grades. The new campus will be its first Las Vegas Valley foray outside the Henderson and southeast Las Vegas areas, where its current campuses are clustered.

Pinecrest proposes serving up to 645 students in kindergarten through sixth grades during its first year at the new campus and gradually expanding through high school.

The school expects that the new campus will have 66 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. It expects that 30 percent of its students will be English language learners and that 12 percent will receive special education services.

“This proposed population would represent a dramatic demographic difference for PAN compared to the other schools operating within its network,” according to online meeting materials.

The school has 314 students who plan to enroll at the new campus, according to the materials, but only about 38 percent live in the ZIP codes the school was approved to serve.

The charter authority’s board approved Pinecrest’s expansion with conditions, including that the school provide a detailed plan and evidence of reaching 500 more students who live within the attendance zone of a 1- or 2-star school in the ZIP codes the new campus will serve, and provide evidence of entering into a lease agreement for a facility.

Michael O’Dowd, principal of Pinecrest Academy Inspirada — who will lead the Springs campus — said the school has put in an offer on the old two-story Sears building.

In response to a question from a board member, O’Dowd said the part of the building that opens up to the mall is already closed off.

Board member Tamika Shauntee Rosales said there are many abandoned places across the country, and repurposing the building as a school is a good idea, especially since finding real estate for schools can sometimes be a nightmare.

She asked if other mall tenants have signed off on the plan to open the school. O’Dowd said that would occur after receiving board approval for the new campus.

Board member Sheila Moulton said she’s excited to see something being done at the Meadows mall.

She said the school’s initial enrollment goal of 645, though, seems ambitious, and many schools have a hard time meeting their initial quota.

It’s not the first time this year Pinecrest has come to the charter school authority’s board asking for permission to grow. In February, the board voted unanimously to allow Pinecrest to open a virtual school and expand enrollment at two campuses this school year.

Pinecrest has been praised in the past by the charter authority for its academic performance, but faced criticism for serving fewer economically disadvantaged students and English language learners than the state’s charter school system and Clark County School District as a whole.

The authority requires Pinecrest to provide regular updates on efforts to recruit and enroll more representative student populations.

The school system also implemented a weighted enrollment lottery this school year, which essentially provides extra “tickets” for students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.