The School

PreK through 8th, on one campus

Amargosa Valley School serves children from Pre-K through 8th grade on a single campus on Farm Road, next to the Community Center. Listings that describe it as a K-8 school are out of date: there is a Pre-K program with its own teacher.

One point causes regular confusion. State and federal databases split the campus into two records, an elementary school and a middle school, because that is how reporting is structured. It is one school in one building with one phone number, and it identifies itself as Amargosa Schools, PreK-8.

Attendance

Regular attendance stands at 86 percent against a Nevada average of 73 percent, in a valley where some families drive twenty to thirty minutes to reach the door. The federal classification for the campus is rural and remote, the most isolated category in use.

The four day week

Amargosa runs a four day school week, as do Beatty and Tonopah. The district moved that direction in 2019, in part to address attendance and in part to help retain teachers, and the state approves the calendar each year.

For the 2026 to 2027 year the first day was Monday, August 3rd, with Pre-K students beginning two weeks later on Monday, August 17th. The school office has the bell schedule and the days of the week each grade is in session.

School meals

Nye County School District participates in the Community Eligibility Provision, so every student receives one free breakfast and one free lunch every school day. There is no application and no income question, and the arrangement carried into the 2026 to 2027 year.

Adults and second meals cost $3.00 for breakfast and $5.25 for lunch. Menus are posted online and linked in the sidebar.

Staff

Amanda Arceo is the principal. Given the size of the school, most classrooms cover two grades: one teacher takes Pre-K, one kindergarten and first, one second and third, one fourth and fifth, and middle school divides into English, math and science with a teacher for each.

Alongside them the school has a physical education teacher, a special education teacher, an ELL and literacy coach, a school social worker, a kitchen manager and a migrant recruiter. That last position is unusual for a school of 149 students and reflects who farms this valley.

Transportation

Bus stops are looked up through the district's Infofinder tool rather than posted on paper, and bus applications are filed through the Parent Portal. Families on a parent requested zone variance provide their own transportation.

Amargosa received new buses in 2024 carrying air conditioning, LED lighted signs, camera systems, fire suppression and seat belts for every passenger. Transportation questions go to the district at 775-727-2443 or schoolbus@nyeschools.org.

Registration

Registration and annual updates are handled in the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. Absences and school messaging run through Rooms. The school office can direct families new to the valley to the right system.

SafeVoice, Nevada's anonymous safety reporting line, operates 24 hours a day at 833-216-SAFE.

A school that knows where its families are

During a school wide quarantine in December 2021, the school ran food out to the community on a route of four stops: Martell's Market, The Dairy, Christ of the Desert Catholic Church, and the school itself. Fifteen minutes at each.

Four stops covered the valley.