LETTER: School district has a long history of ‘oops’ moments

Your Oct. 22 front-page story (“Hearing on CCSD shortfall”) rekindled thoughts of a similar “oops” some 35 years ago. In 1988, Southern Nevada was in the throes of a great populationincrease. Looking back, it’s hard to believe how readily residents accepted the Clark County School District’s projection that there was an immediate need for some 129 new schools to be built.

The district is prohibited by law from using tax funds to promote a bond issue, so a group of us manned a phone bank and raised sufficient funds to publicize the proposed $880 million bond issue. We were successful in the promotion, and the ballot initiative itself passed with a huge plurality, representing the largest in state history and one of the largest school bond issues in the United States at that time.

A number of months later, district officials announced that the formula used for calculating building sizes was flawed and the bond issue would provide for the construction of only 79 new schools. I don’t recall the level of public outcry resulting from this modest oversight, if any, but the lack of accountability by the district for the most recent slippage is not only troubling, but, regrettably, there’s a precedent.