On Wednesday, the Washoe County School District discussed proposed plans to build a new school and repurpose the existing Hug High school.
The project is a cooperative effort of multiple local governments and entities to improve community use on this public land.
The property is owned by Washoe County, the golf course is currently operated by the RSCVA, and is located in the city of Sparks. The school district would only need to purchase a portion of the land to build a new school, leaving the rest of the course for the golfers.
Washoe County manager John Slaughter said, "The county is committed to maintaining gold at Wildcreek, it's just a matter of what's that going to look like."
It was back in November when Washoe County voters passed WC-1, which helps to raise funds toward the maintenance and building of new schools to help alleviate overcrowding. The new Wildcreek High School is the first new high school made possible by WC-1 and will serve about 2,500 students.
Wednesday’s meeting also discussed the county's plans to change the existing Wildcreek Golf Course in Sparks in order to build projects like a community center, Olympic-sized pool, pre-kindergarten center, and more.
Traci Davis, superintendent with the WCSD said, "We see this as a Wildcreek for everyone, for golfers, for students, for people to be able to walk trails, really a community driven project."
Authorities say the new "Wildcreek" High School will provide a new facility for the current Hug High School zone, with approximately 1,000 open seats which will relieve overcrowding at Spanish Springs High School and other high schools in the area. They say overcrowding will be relieved through rezoning.
Pete Etchart, the WCSD Chief Operations Officer said, "We have a nine year plan with the Washoe County School District, obviously the overcrowding repair needs that we are facing didn't occur over night, it's not going to be solved every night, so we have to plan to be building new elementary schools, new middle schools and new high schools."
WCSD says there are multiple options for zone changes to relieve Spanish Springs High School, as well as other overcrowded high schools such as Reed High School, Sparks High School, and even as far as McQueen High School.
Repurposing of Hug High School into a Career and Technical Academy that will be open to all students across the District, is scheduled to open in August 2022.
There will also be a special meeting for community leaders to discuss these plans on Monday, May 1st at 8:30 a.m. That meeting will be held at the Washoe County Chambers at 1001 E. Ninth Street in Reno.
