CCSD Naming Committee Recommends New $93M Skye Canyon Elementary Honor Late State Senator Joyce Woodhouse

LAS VEGAS, NV — A Clark County School District (CCSD) naming committee has formally recommended that the district’s newest elementary campus rising in northwest Las Vegas be named in honor of the late state Senator Joyce Woodhouse.

The $92.9 million, 108,000-square-foot facility—located at North Shaumber Road and Skye Canyon Park Drive—is currently under construction and scheduled to welcome its first student cohort in August 2027.

The recommendation pays tribute to Woodhouse, a lifelong educator, classroom principal, and three-term state legislator who died in May at age 82 after dedicating over four decades to Nevada public education.

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|       SKYE CANYON CAMPUS NAMING DOSSIER                |
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|  - Proposed Name: Joyce Woodhouse Elementary School    |
|  - Location: North Shaumber Rd & Skye Canyon Park Dr   |
|  - Master-Planned Area: Skye Canyon (Northwest Valley) |
|  - Total Capital Outlay: $92.9 Million (2015 Bond)     |
|  - Physical Footprint: 108,000 Square Feet             |
|  - Capacity: 53 Classrooms / 850 Students              |
|  - Projected Opening: August 2027                      |
|  - Construction Significance: Last Planned CCSD School |
|    Built Strictly for "Capacity Growth"                |
|  - Decision Authority: Clark County School Board       |
|  - Final Naming Vote: Scheduled for October 2026       |
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A Landmark Legacy in the Classroom and the Senate

Woodhouse arrived in Southern Nevada in 1966 after graduating from Carroll College in Montana, beginning a 40-year tenure inside the Clark County School District.

She taught first grade for 17 years before serving as principal of Ullom Elementary School and later as a district program administrator.

Following her retirement from CCSD in 2006, Woodhouse was elected to the Nevada Senate, where she served as chief majority whip and chaired the powerful Senate Finance and Education committees.

During her tenure in Carson City, Woodhouse served as the primary architect behind overhauling Nevada’s 50-year-old school funding formula in 2019, modernizing the state’s K-12 pupil-centered funding distribution.

Bipartisan Governors Unite in Endorsement

Woodhouse emerged from a pool of 29 public nominations, advancing alongside finalists Linda Young, a retired CCSD educator and former trustee, and the late Bill Evans, a longtime youth sports official and educator.

Her selection received unified, bipartisan backing from five Nevada governors. Current Republican Governor Joe Lombardo joined former governors Richard Bryan, Bob Miller, Brian Sandoval, and Steve Sisolak in submitting a joint letter urging trustees to adopt the name.

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|             KEY MILESTONES OF THE SKYE CANYON BUILD    |
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|  • Growth Anchor: Built to alleviate acute student     |
|    crowding in northwest valley master-planned tracts  |
|  • Demographic Shift: Serves as CCSD's final school    |
|    for enrollment capacity as district counts flatten  |
|  • Board Adoption: School Board will conduct its       |
|    binding roll-call naming vote next month            |
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“Across our own differing parties and administrations, we each came to know Joyce as a partner who could set politics aside in service of Nevada’s children,” the five governors wrote. “She had a rare gift for building consensus across the aisle — never losing sight of the fact that the work of educating our children is bigger than any single party or administration.”

The Clark County School Board of Trustees will hold a formal, final vote on the naming designation at its regular meeting in October.

Source: Clark County School District School Name Committee Records, Office of the Governor, Las Vegas Sun Education Desk.