A public meeting hosted by the Washoe County School District regarding a planned high school at the Wildcreek Golf Course is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 17 at the course’s club house, 3500 Sullivan Lane, Sparks.
The project’s architect and district staff members are planning to provide updates regarding site planning and school design. They also plan to answer questions and receive input.
Construction of a new comprehensive high school is expected on a portion of the golf course. The campus would serve the existing Hug High School zone and provide overcrowding relief for Spanish Springs High School, and potentially other area high schools. Scheduled opening date is fall 2021.
The 2,500-seat school would replace Hug, which was built in the late 1960s and serves about 1,450 students. Plans are to close Hug at the end of the 2020-21 school year and send most of its students to the new school at Wildcreek, located almost two miles to the east. Hug would then reopen as a career and technical academy in fall 2022.
The 212-acre Wildcreek public course is currently run by the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and owned by Washoe County. It has an 18-hole, par-72 course and a 9-hole, par-27 course on site and is operating at a loss of $270,000 annually.
Tentative plans are for a land sale to close in summer 2018 and to break ground in December 2018.
Funds for school construction to alleviate crowding are coming from the November 2016 0.54 percent voter-approved sales tax increase. Such dollars can go only toward construction of and refurbishing of facilities. This money cannot be used for teacher or administrator salaries or other school operations.
For more information on the project, visit www.WCSDbuilding.com/wildcreek.
