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Local Control Key To Outlying Schools, Rurals Tell TAC

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

More local control in dealing with unique rural issues in education was the common thread in a series of presentations made last week to a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) tasked by the State Legislature to help develop a plan to reorganize the Clark County School District (CCSD).

The TAC, which has 24 members representing a broad array of local governments and stakeholder entities throughout the CCSD, met on Wednesday and Friday last week to take on a weighty agenda. Each member had been asked to poll their constituents on the subject of “educational equity” – what equity would mean in their unique communities and what would be needed to bring it to their students. Each was to bring a presentation back to the board discussing their findings.
Outlying rural communities which made presentations at the meetings included Laughlin, Sandy Valley, Mesquite and Moapa Valley. These four rural presentations had striking similarities on many inequities that are being experienced in rural areas.

All four representatives talked about a range of educational opportunities available in urban areas of the district that are not offered to students of rural schools. These included technical and career training, fine arts courses, college preparatory classes, magnet school opportunities and other offerings.

Another common topic among the rural presentations was the inequity in school facilities.
Mesquite City Attorney Bob Sweetin talked to the TAC about the Virgin Valley’s 17 year battle for a new high school gymnasium. He stated that the current gym is the size of a standard middle school gym and is inadequate for the packed athletic schedule of the current high school. Sweetin pointed out that, despite the small school’s current population of only 750, there are 300 students involved in athletic programs; a number which rivals many of the large urban schools in the district.

Dawn Havin of Sandy Valley stated that a private foundation had been necessary in order for parents and community leaders to fund and purchase a field adjacent to the school property to be used as an athletic facility for students. Indoor sports are played out of a large temporary tent structure, provided by the district, which is being used as a makeshift gym, she said.
Both Mesquite and Moapa Valley made particular mention of the inequity of resources for special needs and at-risk students in rural areas.

Moapa resident Chad Leavitt, who made the presentation for Moapa Valley, pointed out that local school are without an adult education component to assist those who have had to drop out of high school in getting their GED certificate. Leavitt also cited staffing cuts which had been made at the Moapa Educational Support Center on the Moapa Indian Reservation. He said that this center is at the very heart of helping at-risk students in the community and desperately needs to be staffed appropriately.

Sweetin stated that, in Mesquite, physically disabled students, mentally handicapped students and students with severe behavioral and disciplinary problems are taught together in the same class. He acknowledged the difficulty in funding separate programs for a relatively small number of students. But he pointed out the serious safety concerns that arise from such treatment.
“I think of all the issues presented, this is one that might be easiest to solve if we were allowed to do it,” Sweetin said. “Our parents have some great ideas on it. The community has recommendations on how to solve the problem. But we are not able to make progress on it because, as our administrators have talked to CCSD they are told that it is a numbers issue and that it doesn’t make sense to split the students up at this point.”

Most important among all four of the rural school reports was the element of more local control and decision-making. Each representative stated strongly that if local schools had more ability to make on-site decisions to solve unique local problems, education would be vastly improved at the schools. Several examples were given.

Doug McGeehan, a parent and businessman from Laughlin, related an experience when the local Parent Teacher Organization wanted to purchase a new television for the elementary school library. The group was told that they had to submit the specifications of the TV that they were to purchase to CCSD central maintenance department for approval before it could be installed. They did that several times with several different models of television and were told each time that the units were not on the approved list, McGeehan said. When they asked what type of TVs the district was currently installing so that the group could simply go and purchase that unit, they were told that this information was not public couldn’t be released to them.

“I will tell you that the TV was purchased and it exists there today,” McGeehan said. “I am not going to tell you how that was done. But it is mounted on the wall and is in use and has a nice little maintenance contract on it too.”

Other representatives told similar stories of having to work against difficult CCSD bureaucracy to accomplished site-funded improvements to schools.
Leavitt pointed out that local school administrators don’t have control over the most basic physical operations of their facilities. He related the experience of Perkins Elementary staff and students who were trapped in the school late into the evening due to a major flood event in September 2014. The lights and air conditioning was set to turn off at the end of the school day and there was no override at the local level, Leavitt said.

“The principal didn’t even have access to the kitchen to feed the stranded students,” Leavitt said.
Each of the rural representatives talked about the difficulties of completing even the simplest of maintenance repairs in outlying schools. They related incidents where it took days to get an air conditioning unit fixed because crews had to be called out from Las Vegas to assess the problem, then return to get the parts needed, and come out again to make the repairs.
“Meanwhile all the teachers can do is open the door to the classroom and turn on a fan; when it is 110 degrees outside,” said McGinn.

The rural representatives stated that outlying schools needed the ability to call on local contractors to complete repairs and maintenance items. If this was allowed, the work would be completed faster and at a lower expense to the district, they claimed.

Similar autonomy in budgeting, staffing, scheduling and curriculum would solve a multitude of similar problems in outlying areas, the representatives said.
“What it really comes down to is being able to solve problems locally will bring more creative ideas and more solutions to unique local problems,” Sweetin told the TAC. “Looking at these problems from the district level, it is a laborious process to make what would be a relatively simple fix. But if we can break it down to individual parts and allow the communities a stab at solving the problems that they understand so well, we might find some real innovative and effective solutions.”

TAC members listened closely to the presentations and asked questions along the way. In the end many of them came to recognize the need for treating outlying rural schools in a unique way.
“It is clear to me whatever the recommended outcome of this legislation may end up being, that there is a unique set of issues for rural areas that are stand-alone and require a separate set of optics that the urban areas do not have and will not have,” said TAC member John Villardita of the Clark County Education Association. “Autonomy and equity funding alone may not address it. Rather it may be one where defining the role of central administration to the rurals may be a different subject unto itself.”

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