Charter school plans move to new location in January

Silver State Charter School should be in its new location by early next year, according to principal Alan Staggs.

"We're excited to move, but we're frustrated with all the loopholes," he said.

School officials had originally planned to start the school year at the new 70,000-foot campus on Mallory Way.

However, he said, the building must be brought up to higher standards because it will be used as a school rather than an office.

A retrofit of the roof was expected to be complete by December, Staggs said, with plans to move the school over Christmas break. That deadline won't be met, but Staggs said school officials decided against waiting until the next break to make the move.

"We don't want to be paying for the new building and paying rent here," he explained. "We don't think that's very responsible to the taxpayers."

The move is planned for the week of Jan. 16, which coincides with the end of the semester and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. That way, Staggs said, students will spend only two days working from home.

Silver State High School opened its doors in 2003 as a hybrid charter school where students take courses online and attend classes at the school once a week. In 2009, the school expanded to junior high students.

About 450 students are enrolled this year, and there's no room to expand at its current 16,000-square-foot location in a strip mall at 3719 N. Carson St.

"It's going to give us a lot more room to serve a lot more students," Staggs said. "We're bursting at the seams in this building."

He said it will take about a week to move enough supplies to make the school operational.

Within a month, the entire transition is expected to be completed.

The school's new building was vacated in July 2010 by the Nevada Insurance Division after workers reported feeling ill as a result of a chemical spray used to clean pigeon droppings.

Staggs said the air quality has twice passed inspection since then.

"If there was any danger to the kids, we wouldn't even consider the building," he said. "I have a daughter going to the school, so I have a particular interest in that."