The Nye County School District Board voted to build a second high school at its Nov. 8 meeting.

With Pahrump Valley High School already exceeding capacity at 1,300 students and a projected increase over the next three years, the board began to consider three courses of action put forth by the construction committee.

"We have student capacity for today and maybe tomorrow," Superintendent Rob Roberts explained. "But looking three to five years down the road, if we continue to grow at 200 students a year, then we need to address that."

In order to meet the district's needs, the board expects to have approximately $58 million available for the project over the course of the next three years.

After much discussion and public comment, the board voted to build an additional small high school for approximately 1,200 students.

Middle and elementary schools will also be reconfigured, with middle school consisting of seventh and eighth grades only.

Sixth graders will be placed back in elementary school.

Both schools will remain at the 3A level for sports.

Initially, the board was shown a conceptual drawing depicting changes that could be made to Pahrump Valley High school by adding more buildings, possibly creating an additional vocational and technical "school within the school."

Bob Whimpey, director of maintenance and operations for the district, told the board that doing so would add 184,000 square feet of new space to the high school and allow all the modulars to be removed.

Whimpey called the plan a better use of the property.

However, he conceded that all of the school's older buildings would have to be refitted and upgraded, which could result in additional costs.

The plan was lobbied against by both members of the board and the audience almost immediately.

Board member J.E. "Doc" McNeely, recently appointed to fill the Area II vacancy, said he had "serious concerns" about renovating the existing high school.

"When you get finished, it's been my experience that you still have a hodgepodge that's hard to maintain and has all kinds of problems," McNeely said.

In addition, McNeely added that it could likely result in a far more costly project.

Clerk Tracy Ward also pointed out there were safety concerns to be considered as well.

"I just don't feel comfortable exposing these kids to a dangerous situation when they're teenagers and they're invincible," Ward said. "And boy, that's an attractive nuisance."

Rick Lauver, former athletic director of Pahrump Valley High School and current social studies teacher, addressed the board as both a representative of the coaching staff and a taxpayer.

Lauver told the board the coaching staff unanimously voted at a meeting the week before that "they would like to see opportunities extended, not restricted."

He said the coaches would like to see two high schools of approximately 700 to 800 students each, pointing out the current high school could become a vocational or technical school as much of the equipment was already in place.

Lauver stressed that having two schools, and an inevitable rivalry between them, could be advantageous to the community.

"My personal opinion -- with our demographic, with our true legitimate dropout rate, with our struggling to get students to really feel like they have a place -- we need to have two high schools," Lauver said.

"That's my opinion. That was not my opinion very long ago, but when you really look at it, we need rivalry, we need some sort of fire for our students, and we need populations of 700 or 800 that are manageable," Lauver said.

Having a smaller school would also alleviate the need for a Ninth Grade Academy, Lauver added.

Ninth Grade academies are required by the state for any high school with a population of 1,200 students or more.

As a taxpayer, Lauver pointed out that retrofitting the current school would be "a nightmare ... It's expensive, it's not cost effective in most cases, and generally your bids are 10 to 20 percent higher when you're done with everything," Lauver.

He also pointed out to the board that retrofitting PVHS would not alleviate or solve the district's middle school population challenges.

McNeely cautioned the board about allowing sports to influence its decision too much. "Let that not be a determining in what size school we build or how we spend the bond money," he said.

Ward, however, pointed out that students involved in sports statistically did better not only in school but later in life as well, adding that in smaller schools, students are more likely to engage in extracurricular activities and athletics.

The clerk also suggested holding a public meeting to get further input from locals about the issue.

McNeely disagreed, however.

"I think that's going to confuse the issue," McNeely said. "I think that's management by committee."

"It might be," Ward countered, "but we're supposed to represent people. I've talked to people that are on both sides of the issue ... Ultimately, I'd like to make a decision, but I'd feel more comfortable if anyone who wanted to give us the input, that they could before we voted on it."

That discussion was ended, however, with McNeely motioning to build a separate, small high school.

The board member also pointed out that this option could be $15 million dollars cheaper than adding on to Pahrump Valley High School.