Here’s what to know about the proposed Pahrump charter school.

With a shift in the political climate in Nevada, officials behind the push to establish the area’s first charter school are ready to make another go of it.

In an effort to keep the families of their potential future students apprised as they walk through the process of obtaining charter school authorization, Pahrump Valley Academy representatives hosted a town hall on Saturday, April 12 at the Valley Electric Conference Center. Dozens of residents showed up for the meeting, from parents of young children to seniors looking to support more schooling options for the next generation.

Pahrump Valley Academy Founder Sable Marandi headed up the town hall, providing attendees with an overview of what the charter school hopes to offer and fielding inquiries from the audience.

Although she works as an educator in the far northern reaches of the Arctic, Marandi calls the town of Pahrump home. After years of study, she is now a PhD in Cognition, a degree that dovetails perfectly with her charter school ambitions.

Alongside several other Pahrump locals — including Michelle Caird, Dr. Tom Waters and Tim Burke, as well as Dr. Maria Jerinic of UNLV — she has been on a mission to bring a charter school to the valley for over five years. Pahrump Valley Academy’s application for authority to establish the school, however, previously met with denial but Marandi said she and her team are optimistic that will not happen this time around.

“The denial, to the best of our knowledge, was political,” Marandi asserted at the April 12 town hall. “At the time, our governor was not this governor, at the time, Nevada — under the previous governor — was anti-charter and our charter application was denied. We hope this time, there is a different climate, a different culture in Nevada.”

Pahrump Valley Academy is proposed as a college-preparatory academy with a focus on individualized learning. While common core education standards must be met, the academy is intended to push students to reach their full potential through more advanced curriculum. School backers are aiming to begin with authorization to teach kindergarten through eighth grade and grow the operation from there.

“With kindergarten through fourth grade, we will have two classes of each grade. Fifth grade is going to have only one class,” Marandi explained of the structure the school would see at the start. “The next year, that fifth grade will be in sixth, the following year, in seventh. And once we have a seventh grade, we will apply for authorization to teach high school. That’s how we will progress.”

As for who it would be reporting to, representatives explained that the charter itself is the school’s governing document and oversight would be done by the state charter school authority. When it comes to the funding aspect, school representatives assured that the institution would be a tuition-free, public school and would be funded exactly as any other public school is, utilizing the standard, per-pupil budget allotment from the state.

“By the end of this month, we will have an application in to the Charter School Authority of Nevada,” Marandi stated. “You will all see the charter, it will be public. I will get the link to the Pahrump Valley Times once it is available, so you will all be able to see it.”

After the application is submitted, the Charter School Authority of Nevada will publish the document, conduct an interview with those involved in the effort and then render its decision. Marandi noted that if Pahrump Valley Academy’s latest application is for some reason denied, the group would be approaching other entities, such as the county commission or local school district, for alternative authorization.

For more information contact Caird at 509-995-3078.

Readers can find previous coverage on the effort to establish Pahrump Valley Academy at pvtimes.com

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com