CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones speaks to a group of parents and educators during a visit to MVHS last week.

By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Clark County School District (CCSD) Superintendent Dwight Jones and Trustee Chris Garvey paid a visit to Moapa Valley last week and met with local parents and educators. Jones and Garvey began the visit on Friday morning with a brief tour of the Moapa Valley High School Ag Farm facility. Then they returned to the MVHS Library where about 50 people waited to meet them, hear what they had to say and ask questions.

Garvey spoke for a moment to commend the Moapa Valley community for its involvement in education.

“Everytime we come out here to meet with you, we see a strong turnout of people who are very involved in quality education,” Garvey said. “We don’t always see that kind of participation in other areas.”

Garvey then introduced Jones, the CCSD Superintendent hired recently to replace Walt Rulffes. Jones spoke for the remainder of the time.

Jones placed emphasis on the need to decentralize the CCSD and bring more decision-making to the local level. “I’d like to see the empowerment concept in every school,” he said.

One parent in attendance expressed positive things about the Empowerment model at MVHS and asked how quickly the other schools in the community could also be brought under the same model.

Jones responded that, before any new empowerment schools were formed, he wanted to create a standard of exactly what empowerment means.

“When I got here and starting asking around about empowerment, I found that I got different answers from every group that I met with,” Jones said.

Jones admitted that the way that empowerment is working at MVHS has been a great model. “I think that there are lessons that you have learned here that we could use in other schools,” he said.

But in some empowerment schools, the concept was not working quite so well, Jones said. “Right now there is no standardization on what it means to be empowered,” Jones said. “I think that needs to be put into place before we designate more empowerment schools.”

But Jones said that there were even higher possibilities for the Empowerment model. He talked about how empowerment schools might become like charter schools within the district.

“It is possible to think even bigger on this and broaden the scope,” Jones said. “Empowerment schools could get to a point where they could be brought outside of the (collective) bargaining agreement. Then you would have true empowerment and real decisions being made right at the school. That could even include decisions about things like transportation and foods in the local schools.”

This last statement brought applause from the audience.

“Of course, you want to be careful what you ask for,” Jones said. “Those things can have some real complexity to them. But it is possible.”

Jones recognized the difficulties being handed down to him in the current state budget. But he said that the budget was not the biggest challenge currently being faced.

“The main thing is serving the children of the district,” he said. The way we do that is by focusing on what is happening in the classroom.”

Jones was asked why the current budget made no cuts to athletics and other extra-curricular activities; instead aiming cuts at the classroom and, in many cases, at arts programs within the school day curriculum.

Jones admitted that he had taken athletics and certain extra-curricular programs off the board for budget cuts. “The reason for that decision was this,” he said. “I decided that in cutting such a relatively small amount of money from the budget in those programs, it would have a tremendous impact on so many kids and how they connect to the schools.”

“I’m being up-front with you and honestly telling you the reason for my decision,” he said. “We may not agree on it. But it was my decision to make and now it is my job to help you see the reason for it.”

Jones emphasized the need for higher levels of rigor in the CCSD to prepare kids for whatever they decide to do after graduation.

“After kids spend 12 years in our system; after we have invested so much in them during that time; they ought to be able to go on to college, or trade school, or whatever they decided to do, without the need for remediation,” Jones said. “Where we are failing to do that, we have to do better.”

Jones cited the many instances of CCSD students graduating with nothing more than a certificate of attendance. “There are too many kids who are leaving our schools ill-prepared for the world out there,” Jones said. “If after twelve years of public investment in these kids, this is all we have accomplished, we have some work to do.”

“I’m so excited about the possibilities that are out there,” Jones concluded. “And we can do it, even in a tight budget. We can bring about the largest school district turn-around in the country. I am committed to do it and I want you to help me.”