MOUNT CHARLESTON (KTNV) — After nearly four hours of discussing the possible closure of Earl Lundy Elementary School on Mt. Charleston, trustees could not come to a consensus and instead tabled the discussion.
No vote was needed to make that move.
Dozens of Lundy Elementary School parents, students, and community members showed up to Thursday's board meeting inside the education center to share their disagreement with the possible closure.
“Why close the school? Every effort should be made to keep the school open for our kids," said one parent who showed up to the meeting.
“I implore the school district to please start looking for solutions instead of non-existent problems and get this school ready for classes in the fall," said another parent.
During the meeting, a motion to not close the school was made by Trustee Linda Cavazos.
However, it did not get enough votes by trustees to pass.
“We are CCSD but we have to believe that all of us as CCSD not just the big schools in the valley, the schools with large enrollments," Cavazos said.
Shortly after that vote was shut down, Trustee Evelyn Garcia Morales made a motion to close the school, which got a second from Trustee Katie Williams, who represents Lundy Elementary School families.
That motion also did not get enough votes to pass.
"I have a hard time having any support for keeping this school open when I have trustees on this floor that then go on to say that we spend the $5-6 million to redo this school, when they have issues paying our employees a certain time period," Williams said.
On May 10, 2024, parents on Mt. Charleston received a letter from Clark County School District advising them school officials will be recommending the permanent closure of Earl B. Lundy Elementary School.
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The elementary school temporarily shut its doors after it was damaged due to the remnants of Hurricane Hilary in August 2023.
Since then, impacted students have had to commute roughly 45 minutes to and from Indian Springs Elementary during the school year.
However, many parents tell Channel 13 they've pulled their kids out of the school, citing the distance and opting for homeschooling or online school.
"The building and the utilities around the site were heavily damaged," said Brandon McLaughlin, assistant superintendent of the construction and development division.
According to the presentation provided by CCSD leaders during Friday's community meeting in Indian Springs, the school sustained damage to its propane tanks, kiln room, septic tank and leach field, drainage channel, roof support beams, and electrical and HVAC system.
District officials said preliminary estimates of the total cost of the damage come out to be between $5 million and $6 million and said the insurance would cover about $1.5 million.
"Unfortunately, there's still a number of unforeseen unknown costs, and we wouldn't know those until we got into the building and started that process," CFO Jason Goudie said.
