LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The Mount Charleston Community is feeling new hope that their elementary school may soon reopen.

Lundy primary school has been closed since Tropical Storm Hilary in August 2023.

The district decided not to repair the school and came up with another possible option to keep the kids on the mountain.

Thursday night, members of the Mount Charleston community fought that option, saying new leadership on the board could be the answer to reopening Lundy’s.

“We want to thank you so much for considering this. But we don’t want your facility,” said Chris Giunchigliani, a former Clark County commissioner and Nevada Assemblywoman.

Mount Charleston residents drove to the Southwest Valley to plead with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District not to consider a proposal to add classrooms to the Mount Charleston Library.

This comes after the CCSD board voted 4-3 not to reopen Lundy Elementary School, citing flood rebuilding costs.

Instead, they voted to look into adding two classrooms to the library across the street from the school which can hold up to 30 students right now according to residents.

“There’s no place for PE. There’s no place for the bathrooms. It’s winter for five months of the year. The kids can’t go anywhere. There’s no place for them to go,” Giunchigliani said.

“Our young people are easy to come into contact with anybody coming right off the street or coming up the hill, there’s safety – I don’t know how safe it would be,” said Mount Charleston resident Michelle Muehleisen.

The library district discussed the option for the first time.

During the presentation, the community learned that CCSD would be leasing a portion of the library district’s land next to the library to build a structure and playground.

However, they decided to wait to hear from CCSD since the district did not have a representative at the meeting.

“We just want to get more information from them to better understand what this would mean so we can make an informed decision,” said Dr. Keith Rogers, vice president of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

This is a partial win for community members who want this decision pushed back with the hope that Lundy can still be reopened.

That’s something they say looks possible now that their district has a temporary replacement for its trustee and an incoming permanent trustee elected.

Brenda Talley, who sits on the Mount Charleston Town Advisory Board says Nakia Jackson Hale and Lydia Dominguez both came up the mountain and looked at the school recently.

“Both seem very, very supportive that this needed to come back on the agenda after seeing the school and its condition, and looking at the information we’ve given them from the structural engineering report that said the building was safe to occupy,” Talley said.

Another reason these community members want Lundy’s future brought back to a vote by the school board is that the deciding vote to close the school came from their former trustee Katie Williams.

Williams weeks after this vote resigned after being accused of violating state law by living in Nebraska.

But the district said her deciding votes would stay.

Having enough trustees to put this back on the agenda could technically lead to the school reopening.

I will contact Dominguez and Jackson Hale for confirmation.

Reach out to the Crisis in the Classroom tip line by emailing [email protected] or calling 702-805-0489.