Charter high school in Las Vegas’ Historic Westside to close

Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus, a public charter school in Las Vegas’ Historic Westside, will close its high school at the end of this year.

The decision was made at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

“We have strong demand for our K-8 programs and this decision is centered on Democracy Prep’s plan to provide high-quality education to the communities of Las Vegas for generations,” a Democracy Prep spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The local school, which serves elementary students through high schoolers, is part of a national network that also has campuses in New York and Texas.

In a letter to parents, Natasha Trivers, CEO for Democracy Prep Public Schools, wrote that the school board had made the “incredibly hard decision” to close the high school “in an effort to preserve and strengthen the longevity of the elementary and middle school programs.”

“This is a difficult and challenging situation and we want you to know that our greatest priority is ensuring you are all well-supported during the transfer process,” she wrote.

A town hall meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the school cafeteria to discuss the decision and provide student transfer resources.

The letter says the school will share resources at the meeting, including information about “direct partnerships” with local high schools looking to welcome Democracy Prep students.

A series of student meetings will be held on Friday, and there will be additional family office hours on Monday.

Parent Latasha Burrell — who has children in sixth and 10th grades at Democracy Prep — said Wednesday that she is “baffled and shocked” by the decision to close the high school.

“It was a shock, of course, because this came out of nowhere,” she said.

Burrell said her son, who is in high school, is distraught and wanted to graduate from Democracy Prep.

She said it feels like it’s not fair and is inconsiderate to parents to put them in a bind to try to find another school for their children.

Burrell said she has reached out to Somerset Academy — another public charter school — and prefers that she keeps her children at a charter school rather than a school district campus.

And now that the high school program is closing at Democracy Prep, Burrell said she might as well take her daughter out of the school as well.

The school has every aspiration of offering a high school program in the future, but it can’t until there’s a larger pool of students in the kindergarten through eighth grade program, Trivers wrote, noting that likely won’t happen for several years.

Schools across the country have faced challenges with enrollment declines, the end of federal funds and a reduction in available donors, she wrote.

The school opened in 2017 on West Lake Mead Boulevard.

Last school year, Democracy Prep had more than 1,200 students. Of them, 362 were high schoolers, according to the state’s Nevada Report Card website.

The high school has a three-star rating — out of five possible — issued under the state’s school accountability system.

Democracy Prep’s high school had an 86.36 percent graduation rate last year — about 5 percentage points higher than the Clark County School District.

Some Las Vegas Valley charter schools have struggled with enrollment. Last year, Girls Empowerment Middle School closed as a result of financial issues due to low enrollment.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.