MOUNT CHARLESTON (KTNV) — Families on Mount Charleston are preparing to plead their case to keep the mountain's only elementary school from closing forever.
On Thursday evening, a public hearing will be held at CCSD's school board meeting, regarding the district's proposal to permanently close Earl B. Lundy Elementary School.
Families' fears confirmed
Lundy Elementary temporarily closed last August, when it was damaged due the remnants of Hurricane Hilary, which swept through Mount Charleston. Since then, families have been eagerly awaiting the reopening of the mountain's beloved school.
"We were told that next school year, it would be open and that it would functional again," said parent Josh Bowers.
Parents say they hadn't received many updates from CCSD, though, since the school's initial closure last August, despite calls and emails for more information. They feared the district would use the situation to close the small school — which served fewer than a dozen students last year — for good. Those fears were confirmed in May, when Lundy families received a letter signed by the interim superintendent, saying the district would consider a proposal to permanently close Lundy at a board meeting in June, citing high repair costs after the damage from the storm. At a community meeting held in June, CCSD Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell outlined the damage to the building, saying preliminary estimates total around $5 million to $6 million. Leaders said 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.
However, parents aren't buying that damage assessment.
"There's no way those numbers are correct. You can't see any damage on the outside other than a small shed that was washed away," Bowers said. "They're telling us one thing and then our eyes see something else."
Parents say they've repeatedly requested tours of the damage the district claims the school suffered, but to no avail. Channel 13's requests for information and clarity have not been fulfilled either since we started inquiring about Lundy last fall.
Where would students go if Lundy closes?
CCSD's plan if Lundy closes, outlined in the letter sent to families back in May, would be to rezone those students for Indian Springs Elementary. That's about a 45-minute drive from Mount Charleston. It's the same school where Lundy students were sent to finish out the last school year after Lundy was damaged in the storm. The campus of Indian Springs has a middle and high school as well, which Mount Charleston students are zoned for. That's why district officials said they chose Indian Springs Elementary for Lundy students, since they were already zoned to attend its neighboring schools later for middle and high school.
However, many of those mountain students didn't make it through the end of the year at Indian Springs. Several parents pulled their kids out of Indian Springs to be home-schooled due to the long bus rides. Darren, Josh Bowers' son, said he was bullied at Indian Springs and hopes he'll get to return to Lundy for the third grade.
"It was very a peaceful school and it was so close and I like how many people were there. They're all nice too. I never got bullied there ever," Darren said about Lundy.
His friend and fellow rising third-grader, Felix, said he'd be upset, too, if Lundy closes for good.
"Really mad and sad because I always loved Lundy and it was the first school I ever went to and I love it," Felix said.
That's why, for many Lundy families, having their kids return to Indian Springs in the fall, is not an option. Josh Bowers is already looking at getting his son Darren rezoned for another local school, a bit closer to their home. Another affected family is even looking to move off the mountain altogether because of this.
While CCSD will continue to offer transportation to and from Indian Springs for mountain families if Lundy closes, the interim superintendent said transportation would not be provided for families that are looking to change their school assignments — which is what many parents are looking to do for their kids.
Parents claim lack of communication, clarity by CCSD
For parent Katie Reeh, the existence of Lundy Elementary was a big reason why she and her husband chose to call the mountain home.
"The school is right next to our property, so when we heard all the kids playing at recess time and all the laughter and giggling, we thought, even if our children aren't in school anymore, what a wonderful place to retire," Reeh said.
Now, that laughter she thought she'd always hear down the street at Lundy could become a joy of the past.
"I feel like they've lied to us from the beginning. They told us it was going to be temporary," Reeh said about the closure. "They've just been dodging questions for months."
Her oldest son graduated from Lundy, her middle son was attending Lundy when it closed due to the storm, and her youngest was set to start kindergarten there this fall.
"They've been looking for an excuse for years to close that school, and this is the perfect excuse," Reeh said. "I don't think they're putting the kids first at all. It's never been about the kids."
She questions CCSD's apparent willingness to weigh closing a school instead of repairing it because it only serves a small group of students. It turns out, Lundy isn't even CCSD's smallest school. According to the district's enrollment dashboard, Goodsprings Elementary, billed on its websiteas "one of the last one room schools to operate in Nevada," only had three students enrolled there during the 2023-2024 school year. Reeh said the district's responsibility should be the same for all of its students, in both rural and more developed areas.
"They should be ashamed of themselves. They should be ashamed that they're doing this to a whole community of children, of families," Reeh said.
Families feel CCSD has failed to not only communicate with them properly, but even meet them where they're at as they consider closing a staple of Mount Charleston. On June 7, CCSD held a community meeting at Indian Springs to explain the recommendation to close Lundy. But because of the timing surrounding parents' work schedules and the long drive to Indian Springs, parents secured a space on the mountain for a community meeting at the same time and invited district leaders there. CCSD leaders forged ahead with its own meeting at Indian Springs, despite hardly any families attending, while families held their own meeting on the mountain.
"We're really disappointed that no one came up to the meeting they were invited to," Bowers said.
More than a school
Above all, Reeh says, the impact all this has had on the kids is the hardest thing to reconcile.
"I'm seeing his grades just drop, drop, drop," Reeh said about her son who was attending Lundy when it closed last August. "That's what I see. I see him tired all the time. All of his relationships splintering. All these kids that have been friends for so long, their whole world was just shook, and everybody is struggling to maintain friendships now and keep things as normal as we can. Everyone's just suffered so bad."
Several mountain parents tell Channel 13 that the school has helped hold the community together for decades. It's where both kids and parents have made their friends over the years.
Parents added that Lundy is an important part of Old Town and means a lot to the community, even beyond its educational value.
"It's the community's gathering place. Before Hilary, we were actually planning for the fall festival, which is something that all the mountain residents come down for," Bowers said. "It's something we've had up here for so long and it's an integrated part of the community. We'd lose a lot by losing the school."
What happens next?
A public hearing on the matter is on the agenda for the school board's meeting on the evening of June 27. Channel 13 will have a crew there to bring you updates on air and online.
