By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB), last week, sent an urgent letter to top officials of the Clark County School District (CCSD) and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department appealing to the two entities to collaborate to enhance security in the rural schools of Moapa Valley.
“We believe that time is of the essence,” the letter states. “We request that we have a Moapa Valley Resident Resource Officer (assigned to serve in our schools) before the end of the year.”
The topic of school security in the four Moapa Valley schools has long been a focus for the MVCEAB. With studies showing that small rural schools are typically vulnerable targets for ‘single shooter’ violence, local parents and school administrators have been calling for CCSD to address the perceived security deficiencies at local schools.
The topic has been a special focus for Overton resident Shanan Kelly, a local resident officer for Metro Police and a member of MVCEAB who has been appointed as chair of its School Security task force.
“This item of school safety is possibly one of the most urgent matters that we are dealing with,” said Kelly in a MVCEAB meeting earlier this month. “The fact is that our kids are vulnerable at school and there are very few protections in place if the worst were to happen.”
Kelly gave the MVCEAB members a report of an earlier meeting he had attended in Moapa on November 15 which included CCSD Superintendent Pat Skorkowski, CCSD Trustee Chris Garvey and Chief of CCSD Police Ken Young. Several members of MVCEAB were also in attendance, as well as local school administrators.
Kelly explained that the primary purpose of the meeting had been to discuss the flooding events that had occurred in the community in September and what could be done to improve CCSD emergency response in those situations. But the topic eventually focused on school security, Kelly said.
“That same week, a high school in Vegas had had a call of shots fired in the school,” Kelly said. “It turned out to be bogus, just some construction activity across the street. But it raised the subject of response times of school police who were on scene. The CCSD
Police at the school actually had the situation all clear and stabilized within 2-3 minutes prior to Metro even arriving on the scene.”
This begged a comparison with local schools. With no on-site police presence at Moapa Valley schools, the discussion turned to the response time which could be expected from Metro Northeast Resident officers in case of a school emergency, Kelly said.
“I think that we cover 3,000 square miles out here; and there can be as few as one individual on at a time,” Kelly said. “If something happened at a school here; and that one individual was in Bunkerville or further out than that; it could be, not only minutes, but possibly hours, to respond.”
Kelly said that the group had brought up security arrangements that the CCSD had made with other rural municipalities in the district. In both Mesquite and Boulder City, the district provides $50,000 to fund a resource officer in the outlying schools, he said. The group requested that an agreement be made to help fund a Metro resident officer in a similar role, Kelly said.
“We expressed concerns about someone from CCSD Police commuting up from Las Vegas to our community; that just wouldn’t work,” Kelly said. “That would be someone who doesn’t know our community, our schools and our kids. And rural issues are different than in the city.”
Kelly said that Superintendent Skorkowski had been very receptive to the idea.
“It seemed like everyone in that meeting was highly motivated to act on this and the roadblocks were removed,” Kelly said. “It was my understanding that the Superintendent and the Sheriff would get together and move forward with it.”
Grant Bowler Elementary Principal Shawna Jessen felt like this was the best thing that had come out of the meeting. “It was the best point of the whole thing,” Jessen told MVCEAB members. “When we said that we need an officer and it was basically like ‘OK, let’s do it.’ So I think that now we need to move on it right away. We need to communicate back and summarize the results of that meeting, establish that this is a need and ask for timeframes and what we need to do on our part to help the process along.”
MVCEAB members agreed with this and resolved to draft a letter to all parties involved, encouraging them to move forward. Kelly hoped that some action could be taken before the new Sheriff takes office in January.
“My worry is that, if nothing is done on it before Sheriff Gillespie leaves, we may be starting all over again,” Kelly said. “That’s only a couple weeks away. So we need to motivate it as quickly as we can.”
The letter was subsequently drafted and sent. But by late last week, it seemed clear that the process had slowed somewhat compared to the expectations held by MVCEAB members and local school administrators.
In an interview with the Progress, CCSD Police Chief Ken Young said that the district is still looking at several different options for addressing school security in Moapa Valley. He referenced the possibility of contracting out services with Metro but said that an agreement would still have to be reached on the details of such an agreement.
He also talked about the alternative of assigning a CCSD Police officer to work in Moapa Valley Schools. But this alternative would involve sending an officer out from Las Vegas each day.
“We don’t have a resident officer program like Metro has,” Young said. “And we have no resources to offer that option. So initially we would look at an assignment of personnel from Las Vegas.”
Young emphasized that either option would be contingent upon available resources in the budget to cover those services.
Metro officials also indicated that there might be some complexity involved in forging an agreement between their department and the CCSD. In an interview last week, Metro Public Information Officer Laura Meltzer said that there were no plans currently to assign a new Resident Officer position in the area.
“Of course, school safety is of the utmost concern to the department; and we are willing to partner with CCSD in putting together school security plans and carrying them out,” Meltzer said. “But as far as a new position to service the schools only, my understanding is that it is not going to be approved at this time.”
Meltzer added that a new Metro resident officer in the area would not just be able to be dedicated solely to the schools; but would also answer to the existing chain of command and be involved with patrolling rural northeastern Clark County communities.
“If the district determines a need for a dedicated school officer, that would be up to CCSD Police to assign an officer to do that,” Meltzer said.
In an interview last week, CCSD Trustee Chris Garvey emphasized that the issue of security in Moapa Valley schools is being viewed as very important and that work is being done to determine the resources available to address the issue.
“We are hoping to structure that into the budget for the next school year in the fall,” Garvey said. “But here is the thing: we need people to start talking to their representatives in the legislature. Because that is how the budget falls into place. Of course, I’d like to see something happen right away. But I don’t think it is going to happen before we know what we are looking at in terms of our budget.”
MVCEAB President Cindy McMurray said in an interview that the board would be keeping the item on its agenda in the coming months to keep it in the works.
“I find it interesting that, at the meeting (with CCSD officials), they were talking about that it was ready to move forward right away,” she said. “But then when we ask ‘When is it going to happen?’ it is not really in the works at all. I know that our local principals left the meeting feeling that this was, at least, one thing that we got. And now it doesn’t sound like we’ve got it at all. I just hope now that they keep it in the works and it doesn’t just fade out and get lost like so many things do.”
