Washoe County School District’s Board of Trustees voted on Tuesday to approve a $6.8 million loan for Mariposa Language and Learning Academy to expand its facilities and raise its student enrollment cap to 325. The approval followed several hours of discussion and was issued despite the school superintendent’s recommendation to deny the loan.

Mariposa Academy is a Title I district-sponsored charter school established in 2002. It serves 182 students from pre-K to sixth grade. Students are predominantly Hispanic, with nearly half of all students classified as English learners. This is the first year the school has offered sixth grade, which will expand enrollment to 205.

The school’s leadership requested WCSD approve a loan agreement and property purchase agreement so they could purchase their school property and add seven new classrooms. The additional classroom space would allow total enrollment to reach 325 students.

According to Superintendent Joe Ernst, WCSD staff have had ongoing concerns over Mariposa’s ability to repay the loan. The $6.8 million would come from the district’s Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF).

“We will not disappoint you and I am more than confident – part of our EFF due diligence is we built a succession plan for Mariposa.”

Discussion of the proposal repeatedly returned to one point: Nationwide, birth rates are dropping, which means fewer students are enrolling in schools each year. That trend holds true for local schools as well.

Nevada schools receive money from the state based on a per-pupil funding model, which puts an additional burden on districts that lose funding as student enrollment declines. Loans taken out based on current student enrollment could wind up funding enrollment that doesn’t materialize.

Ernst said that in the past decade, one district-sponsored charter school failed partly due to expansion and then failure to cover its debt, and another charter school’s enrollment is roughly half of its original projections. However, most charter schools within the district do not seem to have the same issues with falling enrollment. The majority either have a waiting list or have gone to a lottery system to allow students to enroll.

According to Mariposa Director Jenny Hunt, Mariposa has strong student and staff retention rates, even more so than other schools that have received funding from EFF. Applications to Mariposa are six times the number of open slots, and the waiting list is more than 40% of its enrollment. For these reasons, the EFF credit committee recommended approval of the loan.

Ernst, however, recommended denying the proposal. He instead suggested working with Mariposa to seek out a smaller loan to purchase the existing Mariposa school property along with the adjacent lot for around $2 million. “We just want to reduce the risk to the school and minimize the possibility that they go too far or overextend in the face of declining enrollment countrywide,” he said.

Despite the questions of financial feasibility, most trustees argued that the risk to the district would be very little, but the benefit to the underserved population of students that Mariposa teaches would be significant.

Trustee Alex Woodley said he is often approached by families who want to get their children into Mariposa and have to be placed on the waiting list. He said he is not concerned with the school reaching the numbers they need, based on how many families are interested in attending. “I’m leaning forward … to the fact that we’re dealing with dreamers and they want to serve a community and they see that community and they know that community,” Woodley said.

Woodley pointed out that the entity providing the school the loan is “probably subject matter experts of their own,” who could weigh the risk themselves. “I’m sure they’re not in the business of hoping they get to acquire modulars or vacant land,” he said. “I’m hoping that we can see where this goes and let democracy serve its purpose.”

Trustee Adam Mayberry agreed and said the lending agency specifically provides loans to charter schools and conducts its own analysis on whether the project is viable. “When I see that their waiting list is 40% of their enrollment and that they have a very low transient rate, candidly, I just don’t see a lot of lights and sirens with this,” he said. “I’d like us to find a way to make $6.8 million happen for them.”

Trustee Jeff Church expressed concerns that the school does not offer OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits), such as unemployment insurance costs and potentially pension retirement costs. He noted that if the school goes “sideways,” the district would be on the hook to pay those benefits. However, he said this wasn’t a definitive issue because if they said no to every charter that doesn’t offer OPEB, there would be no charter schools. “The risk to the district is very little,” Church said.

School board President Beth Smith said she had concerns about the information provided by Mariposa and that there were not specific numbers included within the motion. “I feel like I need some assurance in a motion that clearly specifies … what the enrollment limit is,” she said. “When we open a building, we open a building with a student enrollment expected for it.”

Smith said she would be in favor of the motion if there was language included stating what number they were approved for, and if they wanted to have more students, they’d need to return before the board. She added that the school should have first approached trustees with a request to expand enrollment and then placed a request to expand their facilities.

After several rounds of discussion regarding a motion, trustees came to a consensus. They voted unanimously to approve the $6.8 million loan for Mariposa to expand its facilities and raised the student enrollment cap to 325 over the next five years.

Director Hunt became visibly emotional during the discussions after it became clear the board would approve the loan and go against the superintendent’s recommendations. “I first want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for hearing and really knowing that we are committed to being a team partner with Washoe County School District in serving our students,” she said. “We will not disappoint you and I am more than confident – part of our EFF due diligence is we built a succession plan for Mariposa.”

More board actions

Academic statistics and spotlight school presentation

Trustees heard a presentation regarding academic growth and achievement. Between last school year and this school year, they found there was relatively no change in students who are meeting or exceeding standards. However, they found that for students who are “growing towards proficiency,” there was a 1% increase across the board in English language arts (ELA) and math.

Washoe ranks second to last in the nation, just above Delaware, for ELA assessments, and second to last above Oregon in mathematics assessments. About 40% of Washoe students are at or above ELA standards and 33.9% of students are at or above math standards. Compared to the rest of the state, the ELA scores are just slightly below the state’s average, while they are over a percentage point higher in math. 

iReady

Students enrolled in K-8 have access to iReady, a 24-hour online tutoring system.

Of nearly 1,200 teachers surveyed, 70% rated the program favorably. Statistics show it has made an impact on student achievement. 

For students who spent 30-49 minutes each week on iReady per course of study, they performed better overall on assessments, student growth percentiles and adequate growth percentiles in both ELA and math. Statistics showed that students who spent under 30 minutes or over 50 minutes on average performed worse than the “sweet spot” of 30-49 minutes. The district hopes to expand iReady to grades 9-12 next.

Lloyd Diedrichsen highlighted

One school stood out among the rest. In one year, Lloyd Diedrichsen Elementary School improved its rating from one to three stars. In addition, it achieved 12 student growth percentile points in ELA and a whopping 28 points in math.

The school’s Principal, Ryan Doetch, and student Timothy Byrne, attended the meeting as the spotlight guests. Byrne, a fifth-grade student, talked about the reasons he loves his school, including that he feels safe both mentally and physically. He said Doetch and staff members are kind and supportive. Ernst said he is proud of the school, and it’s “an honor and a pleasure” to recognize an exemplary student. He presented Byrne with a superstar award. 

Reed High School expansion moves forward

Trustees approved funding for a Maximum Guaranteed Price (GMP) bid as part of the first project for the Edward C. Reed High School facility modernization project. The project was first approved in December 2023 for $70 million, and the design phase funding was approved by the board in February. The conceptual design was completed in May, and in June Plenium Builders was retained as Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR).

When completed, the expansion will add 70,000 square feet for 11 classrooms, a new band/orchestra space, an athletic addition, a new student hub with group study rooms and a new interior corridor surrounding the courtyard. A new media center, new showers and lockers, a single point of entry/welcome center, new general-use restrooms and new finishes in hallways will also be included.

Plans also include a new shade structure in the outdoor courtyard, two new tennis courts, turf replacement for the football field, a new press box, new grounds storage and new outdoor restrooms. Construction is anticipated to begin in June 2025, with completion expected in the summer of 2027.