Pahrump Valley High senior turns slow start into valedictorian honor

Timmy Stutzman did not arrive at Pahrump Valley High School with valedictorian aspirations. He came into freshman year after a difficult middle school stretch, carrying B’s and C’s on his record and no advanced classes on his schedule, and then spent the next four years building the kind of academic momentum that ultimately put him first in the Class of 2026.

The turning point came in sophomore year, when Stutzman enrolled in AP World History with Mr. Pape and learned that advanced coursework was manageable. That class opened the door to dual enrollment, college credit and the possibility of earning an associate’s degree before high school graduation. Instead of treating that track as out of reach, Stutzman kept adding harder classes and kept moving up in the class ranking.

Even then, he did not expect to finish on top. School staff could not discuss GPA standings directly, but Stutzman said he was told by Mr. Abbiss that the lead at the top was so large it could not be caught. He prepared to finish second and even began shaping a graduation speech around that assumption, only to have an updated transcript change the outcome and place him at No. 1 in the class.

That final result gave Pahrump Valley High’s commencement on the football field at 501 E. Calvada Blvd. a clear center of gravity. The Class of 2026 went from about 267 students before graduation to 271 graduates crossing the stage on Friday, May 29, 2026, with Stutzman delivering the valedictorian address and Naomi Schott serving as salutatorian. Principal Desiree L. Veloz welcomed the crowd and issued diplomas with assistance from Whitney Hoffman and Charlena Bailey.

The ceremony also featured Hailey Dobson on trumpet for the National Anthem, with Gloria Walker and Marayah Waller serving as emcees and Mike Abbiss as guest speaker. Ticketing, clear-bag rules and seating restrictions kept the event tightly managed, including no general admission bleacher seating, underscoring how large and logistically significant graduation has become at Pahrump Valley High School.

Stutzman’s path offered a specific lesson for students trying to recover from a rough start in Nye County schools: a weak freshman record did not define his finish. He started with average grades, found a difficult class that changed his confidence, and kept taking harder work until the numbers caught up with his effort. For Pahrump families watching the school’s graduation year after year, that slow climb was the story that mattered most.