Virtual town hall held on Pahrump Valley Academy, a proposed charter school

Officials hoping to launch Pahrump Valley Academy — the valley’s first public charter school — hosted a virtual town hall on Dec. 4.

The goal was simple: obtain ideas and suggestions from the community on what they would like to see from the charter school. Pahrump Valley Academy aims to provide parents with choices for their student’s education and provide individulized learning.

The vision is for “each student to be prepared for success in high school and beyond through a foundation of strong cognitive, academic, social, emotional and personal growth,” Sable Marandi, PVA founder and executive director, said. “This is what we commit to move forward at PVA, raising every single one of our students to achieve this.”

She said the academy was once her dream.

“It is no longer my dream — it is our dream now,” she said. “We are a team and this is our dream.”

Marandi said education is a cause, not just a part of everyday life.

”It is the thing that is going to drive us — humanity — forward,” she said. “It is the thing that is going to better us. And this simply began as a dream of serving that cause.”

Marandi is a doctoral candidate who’s working to complete her PhD, with a focus on cognition and instruction. She lives in Pahrump but frequently finds herself in other communities that lack education professionals.

She’s currently serving in a village in the Arctic.

“I live with the polar bears and the whales,” she said.

Marandi introduced the PVA board members: Dr. Maria Jerinic, an associate professor in residence in the Honors College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Dr. Tom Waters, a veteran and former educator; Nye County Treasurer John Prudhont; local attorney J.K. Nelson; and Tim Burke, of Artesian Cellars.

A key player in PVA’s attempt to receive state approval is Amanda Arceo, who currently works with the Nye County School District. Arceo is expected to lead PVA once its doors are opened.

“She is highly intelligent, she is very well-educated, she’s very knowledgeable in our field,” Marandi said. “But she brings with her something very unique, a passion that, as educators, we need to bring to the table if we are going to get our kids excited about education.”

Arceo says parents need to have multiple education options for their students and when she learned of Marandi’s proposal to create PVA, she immediately jumped on board. She said the most important thing for PVA is to gather as much input from the community as possible, so the charter school proposal can address precisely what families in this community want.

“I’d like to have a dialogue with you guys about what it is you’d like to see here in Pahrump at the K-8 level,” Arceo said. “And in terms of cognitive, academic, social, emotional and personal needs, what is the environment, the culture of a school you’d like to see here?”

Tynia Dickson said there’s often disparities in the amount of homework her grandchildren are assigned. Her oldest comes home with all sorts of books, she said, while the youngest often has no homework. Dickson believes that introducing more complex subjects earlier on, rather than waiting until advanced grades, would be beneficial. Inclusion of a rich kindergarten, first- and second-grade program also is key, she said.

“I feel like there is no limit to what we can introduce at that age,” Dickson said.

Brent Leavitt, a father of six attending school in Nye County, said he too has observed that each of his children’s education experiences have varied. Some flourish while others do not seem to be receiving the support they need to succeed.

“I just don’t know if they are being giving the full tools or maybe the teachers are just being stuck trying to deal with behavioral issues more than they are teaching,” Leavitt said.

Carolene Logue, of Pahrump, said behavioral education is imperative, not just for students, but for parents. As someone who previously assisted with starting a preschool, she learned that parent involvement was indispensable.

“It became clear that it was necessary to really start a behavioral aspect about how to be a parent, how to really teach our children when we, possibly, haven’t been taught properly ourselves to be proper parents. With that, we added a component of counseling for our school’s parents, because the system that a child is in at home is very indicative of how they will succeed out in the public,” Logue said. “The parents needed to realize it wasn’t just a child that was acting out and being disruptive in a classroom, it was coming from what was happening in the home. Then the whole system of that child’s existence really needed to be looked at.”

Marandi and Arceo agreed that each of these items should be carefully considered when drafting PVA’s charter school application but the public input gathering process is not done yet. Those who missed this month’s virtual town hall will have the chance to take part in a second that is planned for Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022.

PVA is expected to submit its application to the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority on Jan. 15, 2022. A presentation on what was included in the application is set to be made on Feb. 19, 2022.

For more information on PVA or how to attend the upcoming virtual town hall email Marandi at SMarandi.PVA@gmail.com or Arceo at AArceo.PVA@gmail.com.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com.