Nevada lawmakers OK lifeline for crumbling schools in rural districts
STATE GOVERNMENT
FILE PHOTOS BY WADE VANDERVORT (2024)
White Pine Middle School is shown Dec. 13, 2024, in Ely. The school, built in 1913, is in need of funding for asbestos abatement, structural repairs and disability access, among other issues, according to Paul Johnson, chief financial officer of White Pine County School District. Assembly Bill 224, approved by the 2025 Legislature, is on its way to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk. If signed, the legislation allows the state to sell up to $100 million in general obligation bonds to help school districts in Nevada’s smallest, neediest counties, such as White Pine, to rebuild or renovate physically failing schools.
White Pine Middle School is shown Dec. 13, 2024, in Ely. The school, built in 1913, is in need of funding for asbestos abatement, structural repairs and disability access, among other issues, according to Paul Johnson, chief financial officer of White Pine County School District. Assembly Bill 224, approved by the 2025 Legislature, is on its way to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk. If signed, the legislation allows the state to sell up to $100 million in general obligation bonds to help school districts in Nevada’s smallest, neediest counties, such as White Pine, to rebuild or renovate physically failing schools.
Asbestos tiles and damaged walls are shown during the December 2024 tour at White Pine Middle School.
Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español en la página 8.
Legislation to help repair or replace deteriorating schools in rural Nevada counties is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Assembly Bill 224 unanimously cleared the state Senate with just two hours left in the Nevada legislative session Monday night, the penultimate step before becoming law. Gov. Joe Lombardo has 10 days to sign the bill.
If signed, the legislation allows the state to sell up to $100 million in general obligation bonds to help the school districts in Nevada’s smallest, neediest counties rebuild or renovate physically failing schools.
This funding represents a crucial lifeline for Ely, the county seat of White Pine County, where the financially struggling school district has grappled with crumbling infrastructure for decades. Both the elementary and middle schools, each over a century old, have deteriorated significantly.
The Sun has extensively documented the infrastructure needs of rural schools, including those in Ely.
White Pine Middle School, for example, lacks a stable foundation, consistent heating and cooling, fire sprinklers, a fully functional gym and locker rooms, proper disability access, outdoor play space, parking, fencing and a secure front entrance.
Its roof leaks and its floors are full of asbestos. It was built in 1913 as a high school. David E. Norman Elementary School, which dates to 1909, is a mile away and in similar condition.
Nevada’s tax structure and White Pine County’s narrow economy and property tax base are why its schools are in such poor condition. The predicament is familiar to rural counties in Nevada, where capital for schools is a local financial burden.
Local property taxes are the single largest revenue source to fund school construction. To augment facilities funding, school districts may seek local voter approval to sell bonds, which work like loans.
To finance the bonds, a district will ask local taxpayers to increase property taxes.
If voters approve the bond referendum, the district issues and sells bonds, using the proceeds from the increased taxes to repay bondholders, or lenders.
Voters in White Pine County, which is home to fewer than 9,000 people in eastern Nevada’s historic mining country, long ago agreed to tax themselves for their schools.
The district bonded for a high school in 1994 and can’t ask voters for more money until 2034, when the high school is paid off. Then the district will only be able to ask for $15 million.
White Pine County is at Nevada’s statutorily capped tax rate of $3.66 per $100 of a property’s assessed value. The school district gets 25 cents of this for facilities.
These circumstances put new school construction out of reach.
Eleven of Nevada’s 17 counties are at the tax cap, according to the Nevada Department of Taxation.
Five of those counties are rural districts with populations under 15,000.
White Pine County School District estimates an efficient new combination elementary-middle school would cost $98.5 million. The district has pledged $10 million in local funds toward such a project.
Sen. John Ellison, an Elko Republican who represents White Pine County, said just before Monday’s final vote that he couldn’t express how important the bill was to rural Nevada.
Children from almost every community in White Pine County come to Ely for middle school.
“There’s no handicap access. The roof’s falling in. The windows are breaking down,” Ellison said. “It’s in such bad shape.”
Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, a North Las Vegas Democrat who chairs the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, told the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday that she visited schools around the state after the Legislature passed a direct $64.5 million appropriation in 2023 to fund the construction of a new school in Owyhee on the Shoshone-Paiute tribe’s remote Duck Valley Indian Reservation.
Monroe-Moreno said the treasurer’s office staff told her that the state could afford the proposed bonds.
“We have a lot of schools in our rural communities that need help. White Pine County in particular has raised their taxes to do what they need to do, but they don’t have the tax base or the people there to actually pay for the school. They have tried everything they can. This was like the last-ditch effort for those kids,” she said. “When we talk about helping kids throughout the state, every child, no matter what county, city you’re in, deserves to attend school in a school that’s safe.”
The fund proposed to receive the bond proceeds already exists, as does the process to tap it.
The Fund to Assist School Districts in Financing Capital Improvements was created in 1999 as an emergency fund for districts that can show they are at their tax caps and have schools in serious disrepair.
However, the Legislature only funded it once and that money is long depleted.
Assemblymember Erica Mosca, a Las Vegas Democrat who spearheaded the bill, said she wanted to create a repeatable mechanism that would work for any eligible district.
“The goal of this bill is to create a mechanism where a school district (in a county) under the size of 15,000 should not have to come to our body to ask for an appropriation ever again,” she said.
Tom Clark, speaking on behalf of the Nevada Association of School Boards, said his organization had rural issues as its top legislative priority this year. The association had contemplated setting up an assistance fund for rural infrastructure.
He said White Pine was in “the most desperate” need and other districts agreed that it should be first in line for help.
“This bill gives those other districts hope that if they follow the same path down the road at some point — if they follow the same set of guidelines, they do their feasibility studies, they prove that the school desperately is in need of either complete demolition or repair — that this might be an avenue that they could take down the road as well,” he said.
With the governor’s signature, the White Pine County School District would be able to apply for funds, Superintendent Adam Young said in a newsletter Tuesday announcing the bill’s progress. Many of the proposed application materials showing the district’s due diligence have already been completed.
“Once that is done, then the process gets underway in earnest as we will work together to build a life-changing educational environment for our students, educators and community,” he said. hillary.davis@gmgvegas.com / 702- 990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun
Legislation to help repair or replace deteriorating schools in rural Nevada counties is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Assembly Bill 224 unanimously cleared the state Senate with just two hours left in the Nevada legislative session Monday night, the penultimate step before becoming law. Gov. Joe Lombardo has 10 days to sign the bill.
If signed, the legislation allows the state to sell up to $100 million in general obligation bonds to help the school districts in Nevada’s smallest, neediest counties rebuild or renovate physically failing schools.
This funding represents a crucial lifeline for Ely, the county seat of White Pine County, where the financially struggling school district has grappled with crumbling infrastructure for decades. Both the elementary and middle schools, each over a century old, have deteriorated significantly.
The Sun has extensively documented the infrastructure needs of rural schools, including those in Ely.
White Pine Middle School, for example, lacks a stable foundation, consistent heating and cooling, fire sprinklers, a fully functional gym and locker rooms, proper disability access, outdoor play space, parking, fencing and a secure front entrance.
Its roof leaks and its floors are full of asbestos. It was built in 1913 as a high school. David E. Norman Elementary School, which dates to 1909, is a mile away and in similar condition.
Nevada’s tax structure and White Pine County’s narrow economy and property tax base are why its schools are in such poor condition. The predicament is familiar to rural counties in Nevada, where capital for schools is a local financial burden.
Local property taxes are the single largest revenue source to fund school construction. To augment facilities funding, school districts may seek local voter approval to sell bonds, which work like loans.
To finance the bonds, a district will ask local taxpayers to increase property taxes.
If voters approve the bond referendum, the district issues and sells bonds, using the proceeds from the increased taxes to repay bondholders, or lenders.
Voters in White Pine County, which is home to fewer than 9,000 people in eastern Nevada’s historic mining country, long ago agreed to tax themselves for their schools.
The district bonded for a high school in 1994 and can’t ask voters for more money until 2034, when the high school is paid off. Then the district will only be able to ask for $15 million.
White Pine County is at Nevada’s statutorily capped tax rate of $3.66 per $100 of a property’s assessed value. The school district gets 25 cents of this for facilities.
These circumstances put new school construction out of reach.
Eleven of Nevada’s 17 counties are at the tax cap, according to the Nevada Department of Taxation.
Five of those counties are rural districts with populations under 15,000.
White Pine County School District estimates an efficient new combination elementary-middle school would cost $98.5 million. The district has pledged $10 million in local funds toward such a project.
Sen. John Ellison, an Elko Republican who represents White Pine County, said just before Monday’s final vote that he couldn’t express how important the bill was to rural Nevada.
Children from almost every community in White Pine County come to Ely for middle school.
“There’s no handicap access. The roof’s falling in. The windows are breaking down,” Ellison said. “It’s in such bad shape.”
Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, a North Las Vegas Democrat who chairs the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, told the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday that she visited schools around the state after the Legislature passed a direct $64.5 million appropriation in 2023 to fund the construction of a new school in Owyhee on the Shoshone-Paiute tribe’s remote Duck Valley Indian Reservation.
Monroe-Moreno said the treasurer’s office staff told her that the state could afford the proposed bonds.
“We have a lot of schools in our rural communities that need help. White Pine County in particular has raised their taxes to do what they need to do, but they don’t have the tax base or the people there to actually pay for the school. They have tried everything they can. This was like the last-ditch effort for those kids,” she said. “When we talk about helping kids throughout the state, every child, no matter what county, city you’re in, deserves to attend school in a school that’s safe.”
The fund proposed to receive the bond proceeds already exists, as does the process to tap it.
The Fund to Assist School Districts in Financing Capital Improvements was created in 1999 as an emergency fund for districts that can show they are at their tax caps and have schools in serious disrepair.
However, the Legislature only funded it once and that money is long depleted.
Assemblymember Erica Mosca, a Las Vegas Democrat who spearheaded the bill, said she wanted to create a repeatable mechanism that would work for any eligible district.
“The goal of this bill is to create a mechanism where a school district (in a county) under the size of 15,000 should not have to come to our body to ask for an appropriation ever again,” she said.
Tom Clark, speaking on behalf of the Nevada Association of School Boards, said his organization had rural issues as its top legislative priority this year. The association had contemplated setting up an assistance fund for rural infrastructure.
He said White Pine was in “the most desperate” need and other districts agreed that it should be first in line for help.
“This bill gives those other districts hope that if they follow the same path down the road at some point — if they follow the same set of guidelines, they do their feasibility studies, they prove that the school desperately is in need of either complete demolition or repair — that this might be an avenue that they could take down the road as well,” he said.
With the governor’s signature, the White Pine County School District would be able to apply for funds, Superintendent Adam Young said in a newsletter Tuesday announcing the bill’s progress. Many of the proposed application materials showing the district’s due diligence have already been completed.
“Once that is done, then the process gets underway in earnest as we will work together to build a life-changing educational environment for our students, educators and community,” he said. hillary.davis@gmgvegas.com / 702- 990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun