Indy Education: New Tonopah elementary school ‘a long time coming’
Good morning, and welcome to the Indy Education newsletter. I’m Rocio Hernandez, The Nevada Independent’s K-12 education reporter.
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News briefs
Nevada program helping East Las Vegas charter school purchase its campus — Futuro Academy, a K-5 charter school, recently became the first school to receive a Nevada Facilities Fund loan to purchase its campus on Lamb Boulevard in East Las Vegas. The $100 million fund is a first-of-its kind public-private partnership between the Opportunity 180 nonprofit, state entities and others aimed at providing a dedicated funding resource for public charter schools looking to open or expand their facilities in Nevada.
Futuro Academy was founded in 2017 and serves about 450 students, almost all of whom identify as a person of color and all qualify for free or reduced lunch. Opportunity 180 said in a statement that the $12 million loan will save the charter school approximately $130,000 annually when compared with having to purchase a building on the open market today.
“Futuro Academy students will benefit from our participation in the Nevada Facilities Fund by giving us additional flexibility and savings on our school’s capital costs, and allowing us to spend our per-pupil dollars on students in the classroom rather than on the classroom itself,” said the school’s Executive Director and Lead Founder Ignacio Prado.
State expanding seal of biliteracy program to include Great Basin tribal languages — The Nevada Department of Education is working with Great Basin tribes to develop assessments that students can take to prove their proficiency in Paiute, Western Shoshone and Washoe languages and earn a Nevada State Seal of Biliteracy. An assessment in each of those languages is expected to be available for use by schools and districts by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.
“The languages of the Great Basin tribes are integral to Native culture and traditions,” said Jhone Ebert, state superintendent of public instruction. “This expansion represents a step forward in language preservation and the recognition of Native American languages as an educational asset.”
School Spotlight
Nye school district to replace 64-year-old elementary school with safety issues
Tonopah Elementary School has long been on Nye County School District’s list of campuses to replace.
Nye County School Board member Leslie Campos, who lives in Tonopah, said the 64-year-old school of about 140 students has many safety issues, including asbestos and earthquake damage.
“It is very, very old, and it is not [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant by any stretch of the imagination,” she said.
Superintendent Joe Gent added that the school building also has outdoor stairs that tend to get icy during the winter months.
But financial constraints have, until recently, delayed those replacement plans.
In May, the district broke ground on a new elementary school that will be built on the Tonopah High School campus, which is minutes away and also houses the middle school grades. The high school of about 160 students was built in 1990 and will also get a face-lift as part of the project.
“So it's a long time coming, and it's a big deal for our Tonopah community,” Gent said.
The new school is expected to cost the district around $25 million. It’s scheduled to open in early 2026, and will be the newest district facility in at least 10 years. It’s being built by Texas-based CORE Construction, with Las Vegas-based Knit Studios the project’s architect.
Officials said the district has been wanting to build a new school in Tonopah for about 20 years but wasn't able to finance it through a bond until a few years ago.
Ray Ritchie, the district’s chief financial officer and operations officer, explained that in order for a school district to qualify for a bond it has to demonstrate it has the ability to pay it back — similar to how homebuyers need to prove they can afford house payments in order to get a mortgage.
Gent said schools are more expensive to build in rural areas such as Tonopah than they are in urban areas such as Las Vegas or Reno.
“Although we have challenges being the poorest county in the state of Nevada, we also have some things … other counties don't have with some of the mines and some of the population down in Pahrump,” Gent said. “That's how we're able to bond when some of the other counties can't.”
After the students and staff relocate to the new elementary school, everything but the gym and the administrative building of the old facility will be demolished. Gent said the gym has great sentimental value for the community, and can potentially still be used to hold sports competitions.
“Back when we first started talking about building a new elementary school, the community was very clear and unified that they did not want to lose that gym,” Gent said. “That's why we've made a conscious decision [that] we are going to take care of this gym and make sure that it stays even when everything else is demolished.”
Have a student or staffer who we should feature in the next edition of School Spotlight? Share your nominations with me at [email protected].
Reading Assignments
A Clark County school trustee moved out of state. What happens next?
During a similar case in Washoe County, a law firm hired by the school board deemed that votes made by a former trustee were valid until she resigned.
School districts across Nevada look beyond job fairs to bring in new teachers
A statewide strategy to combat persistent teacher shortages includes pay raises of 18 percent or more and recruiting teachers from outside of the country’s borders.
Events
🍎 Washoe County School Board meeting — Sept. 10, 2 p.m. The agenda includes a presentation on the district’s attendance data, and new Superintendent Joe Ernst’s entry plan.
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