PANACA -- Had Lincoln County voters approved a school bond question on last month's ballot, Meadow Valley Middle School could finally have gotten another set of bathrooms and a front office with a clear view of the main entrance.
According to bond language for November's request, property owners' tax bills wouldn't have changed regardless of the outcome because of expected increases in property values and the upcoming retirement of some existing bond debt. Still, 54% voted no.
Without the voters' approval, the district -- about 150 miles from Las Vegas -- cannot access the $5 million it wanted to put toward renovations at the middle school.
Make no doubt about it, those fixes "are desperately needed. I've got one set of bathrooms at that school," said Pam Teel, Lincoln County School District superintendent.
Meadow Valley Middle School's 77 students and roughly 10 educators share the bathrooms, which have more than one stall but that staff only unlock to let people use them one at a time.
Like most states, Nevada does not specifically fund the construction and maintenance of public-school facilities. State funds, meted out based on enrollment, are all-in-one. They pay for books and materials, programs and services, teacher and staff salaries, and utilities in addition to facility upkeep.
Property taxes are the single largest revenue source to fund school construction.
To augment facilities funding, districts may seek local voter approval to sell bonds, which work like loans. With bonds, a school district will ask local taxpayers to increase property taxes. The district then issues and sells bonds, using the proceeds from the increased taxes to repay its bond holders, or lenders.
Previously, Teel said, residents voluntarily added to their property taxes to benefit the schools. Bonds covered by these tax revenues have allowed the district to build a high school auditorium and replace the elementary school in Panaca, a small agricultural community of about 1,000 residents.
That Lincoln County School District could go to the voters meant that a window of bond capacity was opening -- it had paid down enough prior debt that it could ask for more money.
The school district can make a second attempt with voters in 2026 but if the bond fails again, the county commission can legally take the district's bonding capacity for other local government uses, Teel said.
That's a scenario that neither she or the district's maintenance director, Mike Anderson, wants to see.
"How are we ever going to build anything again if we don't have it?" he said.
Bonds are the main dedicated revenue stream for school construction, but they are limited. Nevada's statutorily capped combined tax rate is $3.66 per $100 of a property's assessed value. Schools receive a portion of that
Eleven Nevada counties -- all but one of them rural -- are at their combined property tax cap, according to the state Commission on School Funding. That means their school districts can't ask taxpayers for more money.
In Humboldt County, voters approved a school bond "rollover" in 2008 to extend an existing bond through 2035. The district collects 13.5 cents per $100 of a property's assessed value, which Humboldt County School District Superintendent Dave Jensen said he appreciates but is inadequate for the needs of his 11 schools.
Winnemucca Grammar School, for example, has visible structural issues, which Jensen pointed out on a campus tour: Plaster peels away to reveal gouges in the foundation. Cracks in the lobby floor suggest failing concrete below. Additionally, a burst pipe earlier this year warped floors and led to mold. And investigating the mold issues led to the discovery of lead paint layered underneath newer coats in classrooms.
Humboldt is not at its tax cap; however, Jensen said he asked voters for less than the district qualified for because the community is conservative. He couldn't risk having the bond fail, he said.
Bonds have always been critical to school construction. According to a history of Winnemucca Grammar School written for the school's centennial, the original campus, opened in 1890, and the current campus, opened in 1928, were both funded with bond sales. Construction cost about $15,000 and $87,000, respectively.
Other local taxes and direct funding from the state can potentially chip in to build or renovate schools.
In White Pine County, the school district gets about $250,000 a year from a local sales tax just for capital projects, said district chief financial officer Paul Johnson.
The district recently spent about that to replace the boiler at the elementary school in Ely, where the winters are so frigid that if a malfunctioning boiler can't be fixed quickly, the school sends people home, he said.
A residential construction tax can also be used for capital projects but there's little home development in White Pine County, so the district may get $50,000 from that, Johnson said.
Direct state appropriation can come from bills tailored to school districts. White Pine attempted this in 2023. The bill, which sought $60 million for a K-8 school to replace Ely's dilapidated elementary and middle schools, died after one hearing.
Other bills have been successful.
Last year, lawmakers awarded $64.5 million to the Elko County School District to replace the K-12 school in Owyhee, a remote community on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.
The school is more than 70 years old and falling apart from where it stands above a toxic geothermal plume.
The same bill directed Elko County to collect an additional property tax to benefit capital projects for county schools. And it gave all other counties, minus Clark and Washoe, the option to raise their property taxes to fund school facilities, though it is nonspecific.
There's also the Fund To Assist Schools with Capital Improvements, which the state launched in 1999. This program grants funds to school districts that demonstrate an emergency need. It had no continual funding source. Nonetheless, Johnson applied for it in 2021, seeking $57.5 million. He did not hear back.
"We have only one other place to turn, and that is to ask for some sort of (direct) assistance and/or change in tax policy," he said.
In Panaca, the failed bond would have reconfigured the main entrance at Meadow Valley Middle School so that office staff had a direct line of sight. For now, they buzz people in trusting that who they see on a doorbell camera is who comes inside, Anderson said.
If there was any money left over, the district would have added a couple of classrooms to Panaca Elementary School.
The school is newer, built in 2010, but wasn't designed for more than about 160 children, Teel said. According to the Nevada Department of Education, enrollment is now nearly 200.
Meadow Valley Middle was formerly part of the high school. It was built in 1951 and added on to in 1970 and 1990. It has asbestos floors and aging plumbing. Anderson happened to be driving by while the school was closed for the holiday break last year when he saw water pouring out from underneath the doors. A pipe had worn through.
"It was so wet, we had to cut the sheetrock away and redo all the tile," he said.
Ideally, Anderson said, Panaca would have an entirely new middle school. He'd also like a new high school gymnasium. The gym is 45 years old and the floor is now too thin to be sanded and painted again.
And Teel said it would be nice to not have Lincoln County High School rely on an unconventional geothermal heating and air conditioning system that draws water from the Panaca Spring for its heat exchanger. It's high maintenance, and the strainers that get quickly coated with moss and snails from the spring's warm surface water only come from one vendor.
But, "it still works, and we can still buy filters," Teel said.
"I don't want to paint a horrible picture, because we do a decent job of pulling all this off. (We have) a phenomenal staff that makes this work," she added. "But when it all goes bad, it's going to be a pretty hefty bill to ensure that we've got a heating unit or a roof or a bathroom that functions."
Lincoln County School District, lacking an extensive replacement schedule like the better-funded, massive Clark County School District, focuses instead on maintenance and repair, Anderson said.