Lawrence and Heidi Canarelli Middle School showed off a newly remodeled STEM lab on Tuesday, giving students a refreshed space for science and technology work. The district thanked the College Football Playoff Foundation and School Specialty for helping make the project a reality.
The remodeled space builds on an existing robotics program at Canarelli. In 2024, the school’s Colt Squadron qualified for the VEX IQ Robotics World Championships for the third consecutive year; the team’s 16 students competed in four teams at the state championship, with one team advancing to worlds. The lab gives a new home to hands-on science and technology work at a school whose students have already pursued robotics beyond the classroom. Canarelli’s robotics team qualified for the world championship.
“Lawrence and Heidi Canarelli Middle School unveiled a newly remodeled STEM lab today!” the district wrote in a post shared by CCSD
, adding “Thanks to the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF) and School Speciality for making this a reality!”
Part of a Bigger Las Vegas Education Push
The 2027 College Football Playoff National Championship is set for January 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium.
Beyond the physical space makeovers, the CFP Foundation and the CFP 2027 Las Vegas Host Committee plan to invest nearly $4 million over the next two years across programs supporting students in all 374 Clark County schools, per the same source. That includes Project RISE, a reading intervention training initiative launched with CCSD.
The Canarelli lab is part of a wider education effort tied to the 2027 championship, but it is one piece of a broader set of projects. The CFP Foundation and host committee plan to put more than $750,000 toward transforming 15 CCSD libraries and community spaces, while Project RISE is expected to train more than 1,000 teachers and reach over 28,000 students with reading intervention support. Together, the partners say their initiatives will reach students across all 374 district schools. The foundation’s Clark County initiatives include library makeovers and literacy training.
A National Track Record for the Makeover Program
The Extra Yard Makeover initiative has a track record well beyond Las Vegas. School Specialty and the College Football Playoff Foundation announced on November 21, 2025, that they had completed their 100th transformed learning space nationwide, with more than $5 million invested in revitalizing classrooms across the country, according to a release carried by prnewswire.com. Those makeovers have reached 18 states and 58 counties, the same release notes.
Past projects supported by the initiative have included STEM labs, broadcast classrooms, libraries, media centers, makerspace rooms and wellness spaces, per prnewswire.com. The program typically outfits schools with flexible furniture, technology and supplies, along with paint or mural work and design consultations through School Specialty's Projects by Design experience, the outlet reports.
Other CCSD campuses have received makeovers through the same partnership. In September 2026, William Lummis Elementary School unveiled a renovated library with new furniture and a book vending machine, and the foundation recognized a teacher with a DonorsChoose gift card. The project illustrates how the work spans more than one kind of learning space: Canarelli’s refreshed lab is focused on STEM, while Lummis’s renovation centered on its library. Lummis Elementary’s remodeled library opened Sept. 9.
A Family Name Tied to Las Vegas Growth
The middle school itself carries the name of Larry and Heidi Canarelli, honored by the Clark County School District for their dedication to public education, according to uclasigmanu.com. Larry Canarelli founded American West Homes in 1984, a company that went on to build more than 18,000 single-family homes in Las Vegas, the same source states.
CCSD is the Clark County School District. The Canarelli STEM lab reveal comes as Las Vegas prepares to host the 2027 College Football Playoff National Championship weekend.
