The Clark County School District’s naming committee voted last week to recommend that the board of trustees honor the late state Senator Joyce Woodhouse by naming the new elementary school under construction in the Skye Canyon neighborhood after her.
Woodhouse, who devoted 40 years to education and served three terms in the Nevada Senate, died in May at the age of 82.
Former Nevada governor and U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, who met Woodhouse half a century ago when she testified on a bill, described her as “epoch una defensora de la comunidad con 'una reserva inagotable de energía.'” Bryan, whose name graces a Summerlin elementary school, noted that other finalists had distinguished records but added that, like Woodhouse’s friends who sat before the naming committee wearing large lapel stickers that read “¡Joyce!,” he urged the panel to “make this Joyce Woodhouse night.”
Zhan Okuda‑Lim, a participant in the 2011 Nevada Youth Legislature from Woodhouse’s district, recalled seeking to create a K‑12 reserve fund that did not yet exist. Although his proposal was not selected, similar ideas surfaced among adult leaders, leading to the fund’s establishment in 2019. Woodhouse later informed him of the outcome. Okuda‑Lim said, “Me enorgullece ser exalumno del Distrito Escolar del Condado de Clark. Con orgullo comparto que asistí a la Escuela Primaria Lewis E. Rowe, a la Escuela Secundaria Roy W. Martin y a la Escuela Secundaria Valley. Me enorgullece decir los nombres de esas escuelas a las que asistí. Qué maravilloso será cuando haya futuros alumnos de primaria en nuestra comunidad que asistan a la Escuela Primaria Joyce Woodhouse y aprendan durante su estancia allí a retribuir a nuestra comunidad.”
District policy requires elementary schools to be named for distinguished former CCSD employees, former board members, or community members who have demonstrated exceptional leadership “in the advancement of education or humanity in Clark County.”
Lobbyist Nick Vassiliadis cited a Greek proverb that great leaders plant trees whose shade they will never sit under, saying, “Eso describía a Joyce Woodhouse a la perfección. Ella andaba por todos lados sembrando semillas para que las futuras generaciones de niños en este estado crecieran, se beneficiaran, se convirtieran en los próximos líderes de este estado y transmitieran eso a la siguiente generación.”
Woodhouse moved to Las Vegas in 1966 after earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from her native Montana. She taught first grade for 17 years before becoming an administrator, retired from CCSD in 2006, and won a state Senate seat as a Democrat that same year. She served 14 years in the Senate, spearheading public‑education reforms, including Nevada’s student‑centered funding formula. After her Senate tenure she remained active on education policy, serving on the Nevada School Funding Commission and the Nevada Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education.
The district inducted Woodhouse into its Hall of Fame in March, and the UNLV College of Education, where she earned two master’s degrees, honored her in its Hall of Fame in 2024.
This summer, the public submitted 29 name proposals for the new school; Woodhouse topped the committee’s initial review. Her nomination packets and support letters bore signatures from education leaders, nonprofit organizations, business groups, and a bipartisan roster of local and state officials—including current and former legislators, governors, and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
A letter signed by Governor Joe Lombardo and his predecessors Bryan, Steve Sisolak, Brian Sandoval, and Bob Miller read, “Más allá de nuestras diferencias partidistas y administrativas, todos llegamos a conocer a Joyce como una aliada capaz de dejar de lado la política en beneficio de los niños de Nevada. Tenía un don excepcional para generar consenso más allá de las divisiones partidistas—tanto con legisladores como con gobernadores—sin perder nunca de vista el hecho de que la labor de educar a nuestros niños es más importante que cualquier partido o administración en particular.”
The committee considered three finalists: Woodhouse; retired CCSD educator and former board member Linda Young; and the late Bill Evans, a longtime CCSD educator and youth‑sports referee.
The board of trustees will vote in October on the official name for the Skye Canyon elementary school.
Construction began in June; the facility is designed to serve 850 students in the developing neighborhood when it opens, as scheduled, in August 2027, easing overcrowding at nearby schools in a valley corridor experiencing enrollment growth while overall district student numbers decline. The school will occupy more than 108,000 square feet on North Shaumber Road at Skye Canyon Park Drive, north of West Grand Teton Drive, near the northwest edge of Las Vegas. The project budget totals $92.9 million.
The school is part of a bond initiative launched in 2015. CCSD’s zoning and demographics department, which Superintendent Jhone Ebert has praised for accurately forecasting enrollment needs from housing‑development records and birth rates, has overseen the planning.
Skye Canyon elementary is one of several ongoing construction projects. Another, the replacement of Cashman Middle School—a 60‑year‑old valley‑central campus—broke ground on Tuesday to become a pre‑K‑8 facility.
Officials have confirmed that Skye Canyon will be the last CCSD school built “to increase capacity”—that is, to address enrollment growth and crowding—rather than to replace aging structures or provide a specialized magnet option, in the near future.
Sincity Press Staff
3 hours ago 5 min read
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