Oasis Academy on Thursday became the latest school in Nevada to receive a Purple Star designation for its K-8 program and for the high school’s academy prep.

The Purple Star award recognizes schools that have developed a commitment to students and families who are connected to the military such as Naval Air Station Fallon and the local Nevada Army National Guard armory. The Nevada Department of Education honored the two local schools with the Purple Star award for meeting all the qualifications in their application.

The presentation means every public school in Churchill County is now a Purple Star school. The Churchill County School District, which became the first Purple Star district in the Silver State, received the designation in April 2022.

In prepared comments read to each group, Steve Canavero, interim superintendent of Public Instruction for Nevada, said the “Month of the Military Child is a time to recognize the sacrifices that military-connected children make, and to applaud them for their courage and resilience.”

KellyLynn Charles, the Purple Star coordinator for NDOE, knows the hardships military families face when they uproot from one community to another. She’s the wife of a Marine and the daughter of an Army soldier.

“Nevada is home to roughly 11,000 military children,” she said, noting the experiences and influences that follow the students. “Each and every one of us undergoes unique experiences and challenges throughout our school career.”

Charles said the designation means a school has stepped up to support these students.

“It means you have found beautiful ways to ensure our military-connected children feel welcome,” she said. “You have taken the means of educating the staff on the needs of military children.”

Kristopher Nastro, a retired U.S. Navy commander who served at the Naval Aviation Warfare Development Center in Fallon, congratulated the school and its teachers.

“A military child can expect to move six to nine times from kindergarten to their high school graduation,” he said. “Oasis Academy made it very easy for me, my son and hundreds of other students to transition into this wonderful town.”

Nastro said it’s a challenge for military families to pack and move to a new community and to make new friends and play on new sports teams. Nastro also noted the education he received from living in a smaller community such as Fallon.

“I learned how to care for a sheep after it was born, judge 4-H chickens, drop the transmission out of John Deere (tractor), impersonate a character from Mary Poppins, hear students give speeches and saw students create stunning art,” he said.

At Oasis Academy, Principal Rochelle Tisdale and student body president Fenn Mackedon briefly spoke about the hard work in earning the Purple Star designation. Mackedon’s student counterpart at the elementary-junior high school, Neel Bhakta, also made a few remarks and introduced Nastro.

Retired NAS Fallon commander Capt. David Halloran, who also serves as the school’s boys golf coach, spent 27 years in the Navy and before that, he lived the life of a military child.

“We moved around like many kids do,” he said. “We did seven different moves in seven different states.”

As a naval officer, Halloran said his family had 13 permanent change of station moves involving 21 apartments or houses.

“This award to Oasis is not only great recognition, but it falls far short of what Oasis does for our military students and all the students in general,” he said.

Halloran said the schools in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which is near the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, have been considered the model for schools teaching military children. Halloran quickly discounted that.

“This school provided my kids with a far better education than those kids in Virginia Beach,” he said of the Fallon school. “I am very thankful for Oasis. It is absolute top-notch.”