LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The chief global affairs officer of OpenAI visited the College of Southern Nevada Friday to connect with students and local leaders on the future of artificial intelligence.

Chris Lehane joined lawmakers on stage at CSN, speaking to students about AI’s growing impact.

“Right now, we are in a moment of transition,” Lehane said. “Today in the world, there’s nearly a billion people who use chat on a regular basis. Here in Nevada, it’s almost a million people who use it on a regular basis.”

Lehane said the technology creates economic opportunities by lowering barriers to entry.

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“We need to get these tools into all of your hands, and we need to work to teach you how to use it, because it lowers barriers to entry and produces incredible economic opportunity,” he said.

AI development in Nevada

Lehane said there are about 4,900 developers in Nevada building businesses using AI technology.

CSN began offering an artificial intelligence certificate and degree program last fall to keep up with job market demands.

Throughout the day Friday, OpenAI hosted training sessions designed to help faculty, students and small businesses learn how to use AI tools like ChatGPT. The goal is to grow and scale the partnership between the school and the AI company in the months ahead.

Local author releases AI book

Las Vegas-based author Michael Schrenk has been building computer systems since the 1970s and just wrote a book called “Structured Prompts” to teach people how to speak to AI.

“When most of us start using chat bots, we’re encouraged to use just plain normal English,” Schrenk said. “There are limitations with that. The limitations are that English is very nuanced.”

Schrenk said an economy built on service workers like Las Vegas is less vulnerable to losing jobs to AI.

“Most of the things you do on the Strip or wherever, you’re interacting with a person,” he said. “And in most of those cases, I don’t think it’d be possible to interface… with a machine, nor do I think people would want to… AI can’t clean your hotel room.”

Data center concerns

Schrenk also spoke about AI data centers and the push to build them across the country to service growing demand, including a proposal to build one in Boulder City.

“The reality is that nobody wants a data center in their backyard,” he said. “They’re noisy. They take a lot of power, so they’re going to raise everybody’s utility rates. Plus, they take up a lot of space, but they don’t employ a lot of people.”

Schrenk predicts about half of proposed data centers are already not going to be built, and suspects fewer will be built in the future.

A group of Henderson licensed mental health professionals has become the first dedicated response team in Nevada that can be dispatched through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline as part of a pilot program, the city announced this week.

Lisa Kelso, a licensed clinical supervisor for the city’s Crisis Response Team, said during Tuesday’s Henderson City Council meeting that the unit, made up of licensed clinicians and licensed social workers, launched in July 2025 and works with the city’s police and fire departments to be dispatched automatically after officials receive a behavioral health-related 911 call.

From last July until December, Kelso said the city received about 1,700 calls related to behavioral health.

“On scene, our licensed mental health clinicians can complete assessments and provide treatment recommendations,” Kelso said Tuesday. “We work to connect to the individual to the right level of service.”

City official: 988 model reduces strain on 911

Kelso said a formal partnership with the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health is still being finalized, but the goal is to begin dispatching the Crisis Response Team in Henderson through 988 later this year. She noted that Nevada currently has just two 988 call centers, one in the northern part of the state and another in Southern Nevada.

According to a Wednesday news release from the city, expansion of the 988 program — which launched nationally in 2022 — seeks to make support immediately available during mental health or substance use emergencies.

Nationally, Kelso said, an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent of all 911 calls are related to behavioral health and that less than 2 percent of calls to 988 have required law enforcement intervention. Hayley Jarolimek, a licensed social worker and director of Henderson’s Department of Community and Neighborhood Programs, told City Council members on Tuesday that older approaches to mental health crises have traditionally resulted in high incarceration rates for those with mental illness and have strained care systems.

Jarolimek said the 988 model reduces pressure on emergency services like 911 and allows law enforcement and firefighters to respond to service requests that align more with their missions.

State developing certification process

Henderson’s Crisis Response Team is able to dedicate professionals to provide immediate support by telephone, text or chat in English and Spanish, as well as provide personnel to respond on-site to de-escalate crises and connect people in need to treatment and support resources to stabilize them during times of crisis, Jarolimek said.

“This framework is designed to prevent the criminalization of mental illness and to enhance collaboration between the justice system and the behavioral health systems,” Jarolimek said. “It identifies critical intercept points where interventions can prevent further involvement into the criminal justice system.”

In an email Thursday, Jesse Stone, a spokesperson for the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, thanked Henderson for its participation in the pilot project. Stone said the division is developing regulations that will allow certified mobile crisis teams be dispatched through 988.

“The initial pilot project is the first stage of a larger effort from DPBH that would allow any mobile crisis team across the state, in any municipality, to be dispatched from 988 after meeting minimum standards to receive a Behavioral Health Certification of Excellence,” Stone said.

Those regulations, Stone said, are tentatively expected to go into effect in 2027.

Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on X @Casey_Harrison1.

A century-old Southern Nevada elementary school will shut its doors this summer after the Clark County School Board approved its closure Thursday.

Goodsprings Elementary School, said to be Nevada’s longest-operating school, will close June 30 after the board voted 6-0 to cease operations at the rural schoolhouse. Trustee Brenda Zamora was absent.

Located about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Goodsprings Elementary had just two students this school year and was expected to have just one student next school year. That remaining student will be rezoned to attend Sandy Valley School, a K-12 school about 12 miles west of Goodsprings, under the plan approved by the board.

Tammy Flanagan, principal of Goodsprings Elementary, said closing the rural school will allow its remaining student to access more social opportunities through clubs and activities.

“Goodsprings Elementary School is a special place to me, and one that I want to preserve with the hope that many people will be able to experience the 113-year-old building and its history,” Flanagan said. “We need to be fiscally responsible. The cost of operating, and the upkeep of the school, is substantial when considering only one student.”

$1 million a year to operate school

The Clark County School District spends about $1 million per year to operate the rural school, district chief of facilities Brandon McLaughlin previously said. Closing Goodsprings will allow the district to redistribute that money to other schools, and the cost of transporting its sole student to Sandy Valley will be cost-neutral for the district, he added.

Goodsprings Elementary began inside a tent in 1907 before its current building opened in 1913, according to its website.

The approved plan did not determine what will become of the schoolhouse, but McLaughlin said the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District has shown interest in relocating its nearby facility into the schoolhouse permanently. McLaughlin added that Goodsprings residents said they would like to turn the building into a community space or a location for the town’s historical society.

If another entity were to take ownership of Goodsprings Elementary School, they would be responsible for any maintenance costs, according to reference materials associated with the plan. The schoolhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Goodsprings Elementary has two employees: one licensed educator and one part-time custodian and food service worker. Both have already accepted new positions in the district, school officials previously said.

‘We have seen the writing on the blackboard’

Former Goodsprings students reflected on the school’s history during public comment, but acknowledged the strain keeping it open would have on the district.

“I am deeply saddened that we’re facing closure … but we have seen the writing on the blackboard,” said Steve Fleming, a Goodsprings Elementary alumnus whose father was a teacher at the school.

His sister, Mary Blake, who is a member of the Goodsprings Historical Society, urged trustees to visit Goodsprings Elementary and see firsthand what it means to the town’s residents.

“It’s more than just a little school. It’s an important cultural part of the Goodsprings community,” Blake said. “There’s nothing else there except the school.”

In first grade, Bobbie Poole said, she met her future husband while they were students at Goodsprings Elementary. She called the school a cornerstone of Goodsprings that has helped preserve the spirit of rural Nevada life.

Poole called on the school board to ensure the rich history of Goodsprings Elementary does not disappear.

“Once a building like this is unused, it quickly falls to disrepair,” Poole said. “We have an opportunity right now to do something different.”

She added: “Closing a school does not mean we have to lose it.”

The school district previously said district leaders will visit Goodsprings Elementary to celebrate its history on May 2 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The last day of school at the campus is scheduled for May 21.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.