Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 | 2:19 p.m.
The Clark County School District will repair the storm-damaged school on Mount Charleston, possibly reopening it in time for the next school year.
The school board agreed Wednesday to fast-track fixes to the tiny Lundy Elementary School, which has been closed since a tropical storm battered the mountain in August 2023.
The exact cost and timeline have not been settled, but Brandon McLaughlin, an assistant superintendent for CCSD’s construction and development division, said the district would aim to have work complete by August 2025.
Wednesday’s decision was the third time the school board had addressed Lundy since June. It initially deadlocked on an attempt to either reopen or permanently close the school, which last enrolled about a dozen students. Then it decided, on a slim majority, to pursue a partnership with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District to build a classroom annex and playground on the grounds of the nearby Mt. Charleston Library.
If CCSD had built onto the library it wouldn’t have repaired the 58-year-old Lundy, which saw its parking lot destroyed, foundation threatened and septic system washed away as the storm’s flow bypassed historic runoff channels and created a new drainage path through campus. The district has said the building is unsafe.
But the library option was not popular with the library board and mountain residents alike. And the school board composition has changed since their votes taken over the summer, with two recent resignations. Former school board members Katie Williams and Lola Brooks were on the side that disagreed with repairing and preferred to explore joining forces with the library.
Nakia Jackson-Hale, Williams’ appointed replacement, broached the topic of reconsidering Lundy’s future.
“When I was sworn in on Oct. 30, I said that I would hit the ground running,” Jackson-Hale said.
She has visited Lundy twice, met with constituents and reviewed available documents. She said she saw issues, like the repair estimate noting flaws not related to the flood and that there was no written documentation from the county affirming that the building is unsafe. She said parents told her they still haven’t heard from CCSD about how to retrieve their children’s belongings that remain in classrooms when the school closed suddenly.
Displaced students were reassigned to Indian Springs Elementary, which is about a 40-mile bus ride each way, unless they choose another option like homeschooling or transferring to another school in Las Vegas, which is at least half an hour down the mountain.
“I just feel like there is a lack of empathy, compassion, communication,” Jackson-Hale said. “There’s too many issues with the way that this was all handled.”
Lundy advocates had similar criticisms.
Katie Corr, a mountain resident and mother, said she knows the school is the heart of the tight-knit community, having attended Lundy in the 1990s.
“The elementary school years are the most formative for students, laying the foundation for learning, growth and a love of education,” she said. “Yet currently in our community, productivity and engagement are hindered when our students must wake up at 5:30 in the morning to catch a bus or drive down the mountain to Las Vegas and they often don’t return until the sun is going down after 3 o’clock.”
Mountain resident Michael Thompson appealed to board members to consider their legacy.
“You can be a hero and provide an opportunity,” he said. If nurtured, the school could grow while remaining small.
Lydia Dominguez, who will become the school board member representing Lundy in January and is a former member of the district attendance and zoning advisory committee, said CCSD didn’t follow the process for rezoning and assigning students,
“I don’t know what is with Lundy, if somebody has something against Lundy, but it really is obvious to the public that things are being hidden,” she said. “There is loss of trust in the public with this situation.”
Although the bidding process for the repairs has not begun – CCSD staff had been working with previous school board direction to build the annex at the library instead – district officials have previously estimated that repairs would cost close to $6.8 million. By agreeing to repair the existing school, the library partnership is now off the table.
Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales had previously supported a closure and building classrooms at the library. She said the cost to repair is significant, and that money could impact schools in her area of the district, which includes North Las Vegas and the Historic Westside. But people have made it clear they didn’t want the library
“The community has already come to us on multiple occasions at multiple meetings (asking) when are we going to listen to them. Despite our best interests in providing an in between, it hasn’t worked. We have a choice,” she said. “I’m activating my ability to choose in support of something that could bring a lot of value to our entire community.”