Tens of millions of dollars allocated to replace a dilapidated, 70-year-old campus serving students who live on a reservation near the Nevada-Idaho border was considered one of the biggest triumphs for tribal communities in the 2023 legislative session. 

But the building cost estimate quickly exceeded the original number — the Owyhee Combined School’s remote location makes the project more difficult than building in an urban area — and no companies placed bids for the project last August.

Despite facing a legal challenge over the school construction funding mechanism and a ticking clock to use the millions of dollars in state funds, district officials are trying again — and are optimistic that they’ll get back on track with a more scaled-back version of the project.  

On Thursday, the district received one bid from a Utah-based contractor, MGM Construction, that came in under the nearly $65 million that lawmakers appropriated to the Elko County School District through a 2023 bill, AB519, for the construction of the new Owyhee school. The school board is expected to vote on the bid at its Feb. 4 meeting. 

"It's exhausting," said tribal Chairman Brian Mason during a Friday phone interview. "I guess the easy part was actually getting a bill sponsored, voted on, passed and signed by the governor." 

State-level involvement in the school funding became necessary after Elko County voters opted in 2020 to end a local funding mechanism for school construction and maintenance, leading the members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation to ask the Legislature to step in and address the “unacceptable” conditions at the 1950s-era school, which serves about 300 K-12 students. 

The tribe has donated 30 acres for the new school, and has pledged to contribute $12 million of its own funding toward a land survey and archaeological studies and putting contracts in place to bring power to the site and other needs. The tribe also reached out to the Idaho National Guard, which cleared and leveled the site at no cost. The new school site is located about 5 miles away from the original school building. 

In exchange for the dollars provided through AB519, the bill essentially required Elko County to impose a property tax of 1 cent to 25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation on taxable property for school capital needs. Last year, the Elko County Commission begrudgingly opted to redirect a portion of the 50 cents the county levies for its community projects and wildfire protection toward the school district’s capital fund, which it can use for school maintenance and construction. 

But it’s still fighting the mandate. Last year, the county filed a lawsuit challenging those parts of the bill, putting in jeopardy future tax revenue the school district could receive to keep up with capital improvement needs and eligibility for additional state funding for tribal schools. 

Despite the funding from the state and tribe, the district received no bids last August on the first version of the project. A contractor who expressed interest but decided not to submit a bid estimated that it would take an additional $15-20 million to build out.

The district has since scrapped ideas for a football field and track, a career technical education building, a bus barn and other components outside of the main school building. 

The bill requires the funds to be spent by Sept. 15, 2028. During a December legislative subcommittee meeting, Superintendent Clayton Anderson said he was confident that the district will meet that deadline despite the project’s setbacks. 

“We know there’s a timer on getting done, and we definitely want to have this project ready to go for the (2026-27) school year,” he said. 

While the school district has suggested components removed from the first version of the project could be added in the future, it’s far from what Principal Lynn Manning-John envisioned when she and her students traveled to Carson City in 2023 to make their case before the Legislature. 

“I'll be happy to have 85 percent of a school, but I absolutely need 100 percent of a school in order to run an equitable education system for the students and community members,” she said in a September interview. 

Building and maintaining rural schools 

Dedicated dollars for school facility needs aren’t included in the funding school districts receive from the state, leaving them largely reliant on county-specific bonds approved by voters to build, expand and update school buildings and facilities. 

Convincing voters — especially in rural counties — to sign off on bonds has become a heavier lift. 

In 2021, after Elko County voters had already denied renewing a 75-cent tax measure for the district known as “Pay-As-You-Go,” voters rejected another ballot question that would have allowed the district to take out $150 million in general obligation bonds to pay for projects such as a new Elko elementary school. 

School officials lamented the outcome of the vote, pointing to urgent capital improvement needs. The district is not alone — a 2020 federal report estimates that more than half of public school districts need to update or replace multiple building systems or features in their schools such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and roofing.

Anderson told lawmakers last month the district has less than $10 million left over from the “Pay-As-You-Go” funding mechanism. The district is also set to receive an estimated $5 million from the 20-cent tax that the county put toward school capital projects starting in July. 

Anderson said although those additional funds will help, it will not be enough to keep up with future needs. 

The 20-cent levy makes Elko schools eligible for a $50 million fund created through AB519 to assist capital projects for rural school districts. Half of those funds are specifically dedicated for school capital projects located on tribal lands, such as Owyhee. 

The district is also looking to use its remaining “Pay-As-You-Go” dollars, the future $5 million, and potentially matching dollars from the AB519 fund to make desperately needed mechanical upgrades at four schools in the county. 

Legal challenge

Anderson said he was unsure if the county’s current lawsuit against parts of AB519 would preclude the district from being eligible for additional funding. 

The county is challenging two sections of AB519 requiring it to pass an ordinance to levy a property tax of between 1 and 25 cents per $100 in assessed valuation. If a county fails to pass an ordinance, a 25-cent tax will automatically be imposed. 

The county argued in a February 2024 court filing that these sections violate a Nevada Constitution provision that prohibits local or special laws "[f]or the assessment and collection of taxes for state, county, and township purposes” and is problematic because it only applies to Elko County even though it is not the only district struggling to raise funds for school construction. 

The Legislative Counsel Bureau, which represents the Legislature in the case, said in a May 31 court filing that the court has long approved the use of a population criterion to specify what counties a law targets and require that certain local governments impose a local tax in order to finance local capital projects and services, such as metropolitan police departments and airports. 

Mason said the tribe hasn’t been waiting around. It’s exploring what else it can do on its end, including providing housing assistance for the workers such as tiny homes, donating gravel from its quarry and covering fees to use the tribe’s dump. 

“So we've done what we can do, and we've gone above and beyond, but we're not satisfied until our kids are going to a new school,” Mason said in a September interview.