By Christianne Klein & Tim Zeitlow
CBS 8 News Now
NORTH LAS VEGAS
WATCH NEWS CLIP here -> CBS 8 News Now at Legacy – Nevada groundbreaking
A new charter school broke ground Wednesday in North Las Vegas.
The new school will be on Valley Drive at La Madre Way, that’s between Washburn and Lone Mountain roads.
This was just one of 20,000 different events recognizing School Choice Week around the nation. Organizers say they don’t advocate any type of school over another but do support parents ability to choose what’s best for their children.
Legacy Traditional Schools already have 12 charter schools in Arizona and today’s groundbreaking opens a new front in Nevada.
Hard hats on, golden shovels in hand, North Las Vegas city leaders helped Legacy traditional school break ground on their new 80,000 square foot charter school for students in kindergarten through 8th grade.
Parents are already lining up to enroll their kids for the fall.
“We’re almost full already in most of the grades,” said Aaron Hale, co-founder of Legacy Traditional Schools. “We’ve seen a lot of excitement from parents, parents really demanding this and wanting this.”
Legacy Traditional Schools is the largest charter school group in Arizona serving 12,000 students.
“We teach a back to basics education that focuses on reading, writing and math, yet at the same time we offer additional enrichment programs in fine arts and PE and extracurricular activities that really create a well-rounded student and provide an excellent educational advantage to these students,” Hale said.
“We’re excited to have all the educational opportunities we can get for our students in North Las Vegas,” said North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee.
Mayor John Lee and elected officials attend Legacy’s Nevada groundbreaking
He says it’s all about opportunities and more schools offer more choices.
“It gives the people here an alternative; parochial schools, charter schools and we like the opportunity in North Las Vegas to allow parents to choose their education,” Mayor Lee said.
While North Las Vegas is the first Nevada location for Legacy Traditional, they hope it won’t be their last. They are hoping to open a Henderson location for fall of 2018.