School Board votes to repair Mount Charleston elementary school

The Clark County School Board voted on Wednesday evening to repair Lundy Elementary School, which has been closed since the remnants of Tropical Storm Hilary ravaged the mountain community in August 2023.

“Elementary schools are the most formative years for a child,” said Trustee Nakia Jackson-Hale, who requested the board revisit the Aug. 7 decision not to fix the school. “Busing them an hour and a half each way is not in the best interest of their academic, mental and physical health.”

Wednesday’s vote passed after a lengthy debate over exact wording of the motion, and whether it could guarantee a an exact date for reopening. Ultimately, the district said it was aiming to open the school for the fall of 2025, though it said it could not make promises given the unpredictability of construction. No exact estimate was provided for the cost of the repairs, which will include fixing damage from the storm and making updates to follow newer code policies.

It passed 5-1, with only Trustee Brenda Zamora voting against it.

The School Board’s August vote not to repair the school included former Trustee Katie Williams in the 4-3 majority, who resigned in September after the district attorney’s office ruled that she had not been a resident of the state of Nevada. In addition to the residency issue, residents of Williams’ district, where Lundy resides, had long expressed frustration at her lack of involvement with the school.

“When I was sworn in on Oct. 30, I said that I would hit the ground running,” Jackson-Hale said at Wednesday’s meeting.

Brenda Talley, an advocate for reopening Lundy, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she had spoken to Jackson-Hale about Lundy at length since her appointment. She had brought both Jackson-Hale and Lydia Dominguez, who was elected to assume the District B seat in January, to the school to see it.

“I’m very excited,” Talley said after the meeting.

‘Big warm hug feeling of our neighborhood’

Just like at previous meetings about the school, several members of the Mount Charleston community told the board of the school’s importance to the community.

“Having attended Lundy in the ’90s, I can personally attest that it really is the heart of our community. It’s really the big warm hug feeling of our neighborhood,” Katie Corr told the board.

Since the school closed, the students have been bused to other schools. Multiple community members shared concerns about the long commutes, which include 5:30 a.m. wake-ups and a return home after dark.

The snow on the mountain can also lead to an inability to get to school, which can cause chronic absenteeism, several community members said.

Past issues

Jackson-Hale said that in her first weekend as a trustee, she visited the elementary school and saw a classroom “frozen in time.”

In addition to not reopening the school, she said, the district has failed to facilitate returning students’ belongings, which remain in the classroom.

Wednesday’s vote also abandoned the option of exploring the Mount Charleston library as a solution, which the board had voted to examine in the Aug. 7 meeting.

At Wednesday’s meeting, multiple community members reported that the district had not attended the library’s board meeting, nor had the library’s board of trustees been consulted about the decision.

“They are not interested,” Chris Giunchigliani, former Clark County commissioner and Lundy advocate, told the board.

August’s “no” majority also included Lola Brooks, who resigned on Thanksgiving Day, and told the Review-Journal she hoped the board would not make any major decisions before over half of the trustees are replaced in January. President Evelyn Garcia Morales had also originally voted no, but made the initial motion Wednesday to reopen the school on Wednesday, to the surprise of several other trustees.

After the meeting, Angie Tomashowski, a Lundy parent and grandparent of future Lundy students, said the repairs were a “long time coming.”

“I’m very grateful and happy for the families we’ve positively impacted,” she said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.