Nye School officials could vote Thursday to close Duckwater School

Courtesy Nye County Schools Students at Duckwater School on a field trip during the 2021-22 school year. Six students were enrolled at the remote school then, but enrollment has fallen to five for the 2022-23 year. Projections show just two students could remain there for the next academic year prompting Nye County school officials to consider closing its Duckwater facility.

Nye County education officials are prepared to vote this Thursday on closing Duckwater School amid declining enrollments at the K-8 facility that’s more than four hours northeast of Pahrump.

Ray Ritchie, chief operating officer for the the school district, will comment on obstacles facing the school, according to an agenda from the Nye County School District Board of Trustees, before leaders consider whether or not to shut it down.

At its peak in the 2000s, Duckwater School provided public education for as many as 22 kindergarten to eighth-grade students in the area, but only five are currently enrolled there, school officials told the Pahrump Valley Times earlier this month.

Enrollment at Duckwater could fall to just two students for the 2023-24 academic year, according to district projections, and most agree that keeping the school open hardly makes sense.

Seventeen stakeholders gathered at Duckwater School in February, after education officials posted announcements about the proposal and invited folks together to talk about what closing the facility would mean for the community of about 100 residents — depending on the season.

Thursday night’s school board meeting will be hosted in Tonopah but can be livestreamed on the district’s website.

Email editor Brent Schanding at bschanding@pvtimes.com