Nevada
How public charter schools in Nevada can become private when building their facilities

Charter schools are using a loophole to bypass Nevada prevailing wage laws, allege an alliance of building trades unions and one state lawmaker, who says he wants the state agency tasked with overseeing the majority of the charter schools to crack down on the practice.
But the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority and Academica Nevada, the largest educational management organization in the state, argue prevailing wage laws don’t apply to construction projects included within lease agreements that charter schools enter into with private companies.
The differing interpretations of state law raises questions about just how public charter schools are. Proponents of charter schools often stress they are public entities subject to many of the same requirements of traditional district schools, but opponents argue charters see themselves as public only when it is convenient to their bottom line, which they see as making profit for their out-of-state for-profit operators.
In Nevada, any public project with a contract price of $100,000 or greater that is wholly or partially funded by public dollars is subject to prevailing wage law. Rates for prevailing wage are set annually by the Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner, which compares similar projects in the region.
Prior to 2019, charter schools were explicitly exempt from prevailing wage requirements. That exemption was put into place by the Republican-controlled Nevada State Legislature in 2015. After Democrats regained control of the Legislature and secured the governorship, the charter school exemption was removed.
Since 2019, charter schools that have directly built or renovated their own facilities using public dollars have been subject to prevailing wage law and have adhered to it, says Charter School Authority Executive Director Melissa Mackedon. That includes major construction projects undertaken by Beacon Academy in Southern Nevada, Oasis Academy in Northern Nevada, and Elko Institute for Academic Achievement in Elko.
But not all charter schools directly own their buildings. Many, if not most, lease privately owned space, especially in their first few years of operation.
The charter schools who fall under this category aren’t confined to those renting space inside an existing recreation center or church, as some do. It also includes charter schools who have standalone buildings that were essentially built for them.
Mackedon confirmed it is the Charter School Authority’s position that the state cannot force the construction of those charter school buildings to pay prevailing wage.
“The Nevada and U.S. constitutions guarantee private actors contracts without government interference,” she told the Nevada Current. “We cannot infringe or coerce the private actors’ right to contract.”
Democratic state Sen. Skip Daly of Reno believes this is willful evasion of state law by the charter schools and the companies they lease from, which they typically call “facility partners.”
“They say, ‘No, no, no, we’ll magically just build a building on a piece of land that will match your needs. We’ll build it to your specifications — right down to the flagpole out front — meeting all your requirements. Miraculously we’ll have this building on spec right here for your school and we’ll lease it to you.”
Academica Nevada, the educational management organization associated with more than half of all charter school students across the state, disagrees with Daly’s characterization.
“In order to obtain a facility to open a charter school, most Nevada charter schools find it necessary to enter into rental or lease agreements with a private property owner, who constructs and owns the facility, and then rents the facility to the school on a standard, long-term facility lease,” Academica Nevada Chief Operating Officer Ryan Reeves said in a lengthy statement to the Current. “Since these are private dollars, developing private property, with the school having a standard lease agreement … there is no applicable law requiring the payment of prevailing wage on the construction. The selection of contractors is the purview of the private developer of the property.”
Often, the lease agreements include a provision allowing the charter school to purchase the building after a set number of years. Reeves noted these provisions “are not rent-to-own contracts where monthly payments apply to the purchase price” and therefore don’t change the applicability of prevailing wage law.
Daly points to Senate Bill 226 of the 2023 Legislative Session which put into law that “careful scrutiny of novel leasing and financing arrangements” is necessary to ensure prevailing wage is paid on public works projects. That bill was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, passed on party lines and was signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Daly also pointed to another law, passed as Assembly Bill 190 in 2019, which clarified that prevailing wage laws apply not just to the public body itself but also to the contractors and subcontractors acting on their behalf. Daly, a retired building trades union member, sponsored that legislation.
The charter schools and their private facilities partners are not following the spirit of the state’s prevailing wage laws, argues Daly, though he acknowledged the matter has not been litigated in court.
Mackedon suggested the issue might best be decided by a judge.
“If the trade unions want to talk, if they think the private actors are doing something wrong and out of the confines of (Nevada Revised Statute), I think they should absolutely file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner,” she said. “There are entities that are in the position to deal with this and make judgments, but it’s not the SPCSA.”
When asked about the legality of these types of agreements between public charter schools and private facility partners, Labor Commissioner Brett Harris referenced last year’s SB226, saying it closed such loopholes.
“Prevailing wage, the apprenticeship and payroll requirements, those all apply,” she said.
Harris noted that, in 2020, Laborers International Union Local 169 — then headed by Daly — sued the City of Sparks over prevailing wage issues stemming from the below-market-value transfer of land from its redevelopment agency to a private developer. The Office of the Labor Commissioner determined the workers on that parking garage-condominium project should have been paid prevailing wage. The city and developer appealed.
That case is still awaiting a decision from the Nevada Supreme Court.
“In the meantime, SB226 explicitly says purchase property lease agreements and there is some agreement with the land,” she said. “This applies to all of them.”
Academica Nevada disagrees, saying SB226 revised a portion of the law (NRS Chapter 354, on local government finance) that charter schools are exempt from by NRS 388A.366(1)(n). Furthermore, Reeves argues, the legislative intent of last year’s law was to address situations “where public resources contributed directly to a private development.”
“Standard charter school development involves a private developer purchasing land at market value, developing a building with private dollars, and then renting it to the school with no certainty whether the school will eventually be in a financial position to purchase the project,” he said. “This type of project does not fit within the intent or language of SB226.”
Who’s supposed to be watching?
Prevailing wage and other labor violations are not confined to the charter schools, and Daly acknowledges there have been cases of university foundations and redevelopment areas attempting to skirt prevailing wage laws under similar grounds.
“It’s a lease paid for nearly 100% by public funds,” said Daly. “Liars are gonna lie, that’s what they do. Cheaters are going to cheat.”
For building trades professionals, the skirting of prevailing wage requirements by a charter school is uniquely egregious because many of them approach unions for guidance inside the classroom.
“They ask us for pre-apprenticeship curriculum,” said Southern Nevada Building Trades Union Executive Secretary-Treasurer Vince Saavedra. “You want us to train your students to be pre-apprentices, to get them ready. You want our curriculum to use; but you don’t want us to build your schools.”
Charter schools are granted wide autonomy by the state, and the nature of their oversight in Nevada lends itself to increased confusion, says the labor commissioner.
“There tends to be confusion because (charter schools) are individually operated,” Harris said. “It seems like the (Authority) is confused about being a central body because they are not fronting the money for a project.”
But the labor commissioner says oversight is the responsibility of the Charter School Authority and “they should be driving the compliance portion.”
State agencies overseeing qualified public works projects are supposed to collect payroll breakdowns from contractors and subcontractors and review for potential violations. If they find them, they are supposed to submit a complaint to the Labor Commissioner, which conducts their own investigation.
But in reality, state agencies across the board are understaffed when it comes to compliance officers, says Harris. Most complaints about prevailing wage violations are initiated by third-party observers — typically labor unions who fund their own compliance officers to seek out bad actors.
SNBTU notes they have found prevailing wage violations on projects that are clearly subject to public works laws, including at Clark County School District.
“If it happens on CCSD projects, it’s likely happening on charter schools that aren’t subject to the same scrutiny,” said Aaron Ibarra, chief of staff at SNBTU.
Robert Diaz is one of those union reps who has been looking into the prevailing wage violations at charter schools. He says the Charter School Authority and individual charter school operators have outright ignored him or shuffled him around to different people in hopes he drops the issue.
“The intent seems willful but nobody will tell me that outloud,” he said. “You get the vibe of it when you get told, ‘Oh, visit this office, or this office.’ Then you’ve visited every office. Then, it’s, ‘Speak to our attorneys.’”
Diaz and half a dozen representatives of building trade unions appeared before the interim Sunset Committee on Legislative Commission in April to urge lawmakers to investigate the matter and potentially take action.
“We support charter schools but we want to make sure they are following the law when building new schools,” Saavedra told the subcommittee, which Daly chairs. “We’re calling for more transparency.”
Studies have shown that skirting prevailing wage law typically results in the developer making a bigger profit, said Saavedra. Labor cost savings aren’t passed onto the public.
Harris acknowledges the enforcement of prevailing wage issues is reactive and says her office is currently considering sponsoring legislation in the 2025 session to move away from being complaint driven and become proactive with compliance. One idea being floated is to create a centralized reporting system for prevailing wage projects and add additional compliance officers, which could be funded through a small fee charged to contractors.
“If they could set up projects in the same place, the Labor Commissioner can audit,” said Harris. “We can pull data and do compliance ourselves and not rely on these awarding bodies.”
In the meantime, agencies across the state may be confused about what labor laws apply and when. Harris emphasized she’s seen nothing nefarious from the Charter School Authority.
Daly is less forgiving.
“In my view, they are intentionally ignoring (the issue), failing to put (charter schools) on notice, and allowing them to continue skirting, if not flat out violating, requirements,” he said.
Mackedon told the Current the Charter School Authority doesn’t get updated of schools’ maintenance projects, regardless of how costly they might be.
“Obviously, if they’re building a brand new school and location, we would know,” she said of the authority’s role, “but if something happens with the HVAC and it’s over $100,000 and hits that threshold, they don’t notify us of all their maintenance everytime they do it.”
The longstanding facilities funding debate
“It’s important to understand that charter schools not receiving the same funding that traditional schools are is the root cause of this entire problem and argument,” said Mackedon, who was appointed executive director of the Charter School Authority in October.
Charter schools would prefer to own their own buildings because it would save them money, she said. That they can’t is a byproduct of the lack of dedicated facilities funding, which Mackedon says is an estimated $1,200 per pupil that traditional school districts receive from counties on top of the base per pupil funding they receive from the state.
“If charter schools were getting facilities funding, this would be a non-issue,” she added.
Reeves in Academica Nevada’s statement agreed with that sentiment, saying the company “would welcome” paying prevailing wage with dedicated facility funding.
“Instead of providing equal funding to charter schools, discrepancies in funding between school districts and public charter schools have been expanded,” he added.
Reeves pointed to the exclusion of charter school teachers in a bill designed to fund educator pay raises: “You can’t oppose equal funding for charter school teachers and facilities, while simultaneously demanding that charter schools incur the costs that would be applicable only if they received equal public funding.”
The Nevada Facilities Fund, which is partially seeded by the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank and administered by the non-profit Opportunity 180, is designed to provide a below-market rate financing option for charter schools. According to the State Treasurer’s Office and Opportunity 180, any charter school borrowing from the fund will be subject to prevailing wage.
Opportunity 180 declined to speak to the Current more broadly about charter schools and prevailing wage laws, sending only this statement: “The Nevada Facilities Fund is a public-private partnership and does not play a role in the construction or contracting process for school buildings; it is a loan fund dedicated to helping charter schools access low-cost capital for their campuses, providing opportunities for more students to have access to an education that fits their needs.
Reeves noted in his statement that the funds available through the facilities fund are limited “and ultimately the schools are still using operations and instruction funding to pay those loans.”
Diaz of SNBTU said union representatives have spoken to charter school advocates about the facilities funding issue, but he remains unconvinced that it matters.
“We’ve heard them,” he said. “My answer is, once you know the rules of engagement, the laws you have to abide by, the rules are there and prevailing wage is in place, then you can choose to build the school or not. I don’t know any other way to understand it.”

Nevada
Nevada sheds 7,100 construction jobs amid labor shortage: report

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — According to data from the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Nevada shed 7,100 construction jobs, a total of 6.4% of the workforce, in the last 12 months. It represents the percentage loss in the county.
When compared month to month, the Silver State saw similar drops, with 4,400 jobs lost from July to August, a 4.1% decline. Nationally, association officials noted a difficulty in filling open positions, with 92% of firms reporting having a hard time finding workers. 45% of firms delayed projects due to labor shortages.
“Most firms are struggling to find enough workers to hire amid persistent labor shortages,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the AGC. “These labor shortages are the number one cause for delayed construction projects, according to our recent survey.”
“The construction officials urged federal leaders to boost funding for construction education and training and create more lawful pathways for people to enter the country to work in construction,” the report said.
The report follows data from real estate website Redfin, which indicates that Las Vegas is the fastest-cooling U.S. housing market, with home sales down 10.2% year over year.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
Nevada
Country star cancels final tour stop over safety concerns

Country music star Bailey Zimmerman was forced to cancel the final show of his “New To Country Tour” because of safety concerns at the Rio Vista Outdoor Amphitheater in Laughlin, Nevada, Parade reports.
In an Instagram post featuring a simple black backdrop, Zimmerman expressed his disappointment about the cancellation.
“This is something an artist never wants to tell their fans,” he wrote on Saturday. “I am beyond disappointed, and I’m sorry, but we have to cancel our show tonight in Laughlin, NV.”
The cancellation stemmed from what Zimmerman described as “unforeseen local production limitations” and an unsafe stage. He emphasized that the decision had nothing to do with him or his team, stating they arrived “fully prepared to end the New To Country Tour the right way.”
“The safety of y’all, my band, and my crew is the most important thing to me, and I just can’t put y’all at risk,” Zimmerman explained in his post.
He added, “I really hate disappointing you all, and I hate ending the tour this way, but like I said, it’s what I have to do.”
Fans who purchased tickets to the Laughlin concert will receive full refunds to their original method of payment, with payments expected to appear within 14-21 days. Ticket holders with questions are advised to contact their ticket providers directly.
Despite the disappointing conclusion to his current tour, Zimmerman has already announced his next venture. The “Different Night Same Rodeo Tour” is scheduled to begin on Feb. 19, and it will cover more than 30 cities across the United States, including Knoxville, Boston, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Nashville and Toronto.
The tour is set to conclude June 20.
The “New To Country Tour,” which began on June 6 in Indianapolis, featured special guests Dylan Marlowe and Drew Baldridge.
Fans responded supportively to Zimmerman’s announcement, with one commenting, “I’m so sorry, BZ! I know you care soooo much about your fans and team. This must have been such a hard choice.”
Another added, “Sad, but you and your crew need to be safe.”
This story was written with the assistance og AI.
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Nevada
Nevada protects consumers from utility shutoffs in extreme heat. Advocates want more. – The Nevada Independent

As electricity costs grow steeper and Nevada summers grow deadlier, advocates are sounding alarms about the risks to low-income people who can’t afford consistent air conditioning in dangerous temperatures.
Between May and August 2025, there were at least 114 heat-related deaths in Clark County alone, according to the county coroner’s office.
This summer’s scourge of heat-related death and illness mirrors a nationwide trend. Recent studies show that extreme summertime heat is now the leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In 2023, the death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Three-quarters of those deaths occurred in five states: Arizona, Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Nevada.
According to the nonprofit organization Climate Central, Las Vegas and Reno are the two fastest-warming cities nationwide. Las Vegas’ environment puts residents at particular danger from extreme heat. The city’s sprawl has created a “heat island,” where heat-absorbing roads and buildings further increase temperatures.
Yanci Hill works to protect her fellow Nevadans from extreme heat as part of the Latin-focused environmental group Chispa Nevada, which advocates for less expensive utility costs and more transparent utility policies for Nevadans. She experienced extreme heat herself in July 2024, when the central air-conditioning unit in her one-story home in Henderson broke.
Hill, her husband and their 18-year-old daughter spent five days virtually trapped inside their home. “It was 113 degrees outside,” she explained, “and 102 degrees inside. We were sleeping with cold compresses on our foreheads and ice packs under our pillows.” The heat got so bad, Hill said, one of the family cats fell ill with liver disease.
Hill said one of her friends once had her utilities shut off because she was a few dollars short on her bill.
The federal government has long recognized the need to ensure Americans can access their utilities in extreme weather. Since 1980, the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has provided funds to state governments to subsidize residents who have trouble affording their heating or cooling bills. But according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), which represents the program’s state managers, roughly 85 percent of the program’s resources are used for heating in the winter. That leaves less support available nationally for households requiring cooling.
“How do we protect vulnerable households both during periods of extreme heat and extreme cold?” asked Wolfe. “The rules haven’t caught up.”
Nationally, the cost of electricity has risen at twice the pace of the average cost of living, exacerbating this problem. According to NEADA, almost one in every five of the poorest families lacks consistent access to cooling.
To supplement the LIHEAP program’s efforts and keep utilities operating in sweltering heat, many states bar utility companies from disconnecting services in certain temperatures or during certain months.
Nevada is one of 20 states that offer protections from utility shutoffs during extreme heat and one of 41 states that offer the same protections during extreme cold. According to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN), utilities cannot be disconnected when the temperature is above 105 degrees. If customers are elderly or disabled, that threshold drops to 95 degrees. Utility disconnections also must be delayed for 30 days if a resident is experiencing a medical emergency.
But Olivia Tanager of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter, one of Nevada’s largest environmental organizations, said she believes the state must do more.
Some states have their temperature-based protections kick in at a lower threshold. Arizona, for instance, prevents utilities from being shut off during summer months or whenever it hits 95 degrees.
“I think a lower threshold — in the 92 or 95 degree area — would be much more reasonable for Nevada, because we also know, especially in Southern Nevada, the heat disparities between different neighborhoods are very extreme,” said Tanager.
In this year’s legislative session, a bill that went even further — prohibiting utility cutoffs from May 1 to Oct. 31 — died without a hearing.
Along with more expansive time- or temperature-based protections, environmental and consumer advocates have encouraged the state to provide more robust financial assistance to low-income families. Nevada is one of 26 states plus Washington, D.C., that offer assistance with summer energy bills, partnering with the federally funded LIHEAP to provide support to consumers through the Energy Assistance Program (EAP). NV Energy, which controls the majority of utilities in Southern Nevada, also oversees the Special Assistance Fund for Energy (SAFE) program, which is intended to supplement state and federal assistance.
But Nevada is not one of the 21 states with explicit policies protecting low-income families from utility disconnections during summer months. Such disconnections are only barred if the temperature is above 105 degrees. But even if families keep their utilities on in such intense heat, they must foot the bill. A public utilities commission spokesperson told The Nevada Independent in a statement that Nevada places “a moratorium on disconnections during periods of extreme temperatures; the regulations do not exempt customers from paying utility bills incurred during extreme temperature periods.”
Residents are only allowed to receive EAP funds once annually, which Tanager says further prevents the program from becoming a long-term solution to an affordability crisis.
“While we do have resources, and while we appreciate those resources existing, we know that it’s not working for everybody,” she said.
Tanager’s Sierra Club and Hill’s Chispa Nevada are part of the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition, which sent a group of activists to the state legislative session in April 2025 to advocate for greater transparency and affordability concerning utilities. They petitioned successfully for the passage of AB442, which requires the Public Utilities Commission to report quarterly data on when and where utility services are being disconnected, and AB452, which requires greater transparency around the setting of utility rates.
“AB452 was really about consumer protections — how do we know what we’re paying for as energy consumers?” said Assm. Tracy Brown-May, who sponsored the bill. “So that we know when [Nevada utility companies] purchase that natural gas, the cost of it is not all immediately passed onto the rate payer, with no data or information as to why.”
In February 2025, NV Energy proposed a revenue increase that would spike rates up to 9 percent, a move they justified by pointing to last year’s expensive heat waves. The Public Utilities Commission, forced to delay August public hearings on the matter due to the government’s recent cyberattack, is expected to vote on the proposed rate hike next week.
Tanager, for her part, said she hopes that the commission votes against the hike.
“The utility companies are bringing in record profits year-after-year, but Nevadans continue to be squeezed more and more,” she stated. “Several percentage points of people in each ZIP code are unable to pay their utility bill each year, which is, in my opinion, just disgusting.”
Cora Lewis of The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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