By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
The Clark County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last week to opt out of its involvement in the selection of associate superintendents hired by the Clark County School District (CCSD).
In a vote taken Tuesday, September 20, the board approved a motion by Commissioner Mary Beth Scow that it would forego any participation in interviews for the new Associate Superintendent positions established by a recently passed state legislative plan to reorganize the CCSD. Scow said the reason for her motion was “because we feel that it would politicize the process.”
The motion was approved unanimously with no discussion from the board on the matter.
The action arose from a plan to reorganize the CCSD which was recently approved unanimously by a bipartisan Advisory Committee made up of State Legislators. The plan established the new Associate Superintendent role in the district to oversee groups of school principals organized into Performance Zones. The position would act as the direct conduit between Performance Zone principals and the CCSD Superintendent.
Regulations connected with the plan sought to establish a degree of parental and community involvement in the selection and hiring of the Associate Superintendents. Though the regulation leaves the final hiring decision to the Superintendent, it did allow a small committee of stakeholders to be appointed to participate in the interview process for the position.
Included in this committee would be as many as two representatives selected by the group of principals in the Performance Zone to be overseen by the vacant position. But also the regulations allow for one other representative to be chosen by whatever local government agency has the most schools in the Performance Zone.
In addition, the municipality was also given the option to hold a community meeting after the hiring decision had been made to introduce the newly hired candidate to the public. All of this was done with the intention of preserving involvement for parents and communities in the hiring process.
In its vote last week, the County Commission voluntarily gave up its option to select that community representative. Instead the governing body opted out of its prerogative to participate in the hiring process at all.
Scow said that the item had been put on the agenda to clarify the board’s position on the matter. She referenced that the regulations had included “enabling language” for local government jurisdictions to participate in the interviews.
“We have mentioned this from time to time in emerging issues,” Scow said before making the motion. “But I think that our counsel advised that we probably; since the language is enabling and says that we ‘may’ take part; that we should clarify our position on it.”
The unanimous vote in favor of the motion included a vote from Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick who represents the northeastern Clark County communities of Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley. Kirkpatrick was unavailable for comment on the matter last week.
The schools of northeastern Clark County are included in CCSD Performance Zone 16 along with nineteen other schools from rural outlying areas. Those include schools in the cities of Boulder City and Mesquite, which are separate municipal jurisdictions than Clark County. But since the majority of the schools in Zone 16 are in unincorporated Clark County, it would still fall to the County Commission to appoint the representative to participate in the hiring, according to the regulation.
Local education advocates were left frustrated by the action of the Commission, which they said took them by surprise. The item appeared on the Tuesday meeting agenda as Item #79 and was listed broadly as “Discuss issues and regulations pertaining to the reorganization of the CCSD and take any action deemed appropriate.”
Local advocates had stayed involved throughout the process of drafting the CCSD reorganization plans and had specifically sought to have a seat at the table for selection of the Associate Superintendent, a position they considered vital to local education. They viewed last week’s Commission vote as a rejection of their efforts.
“We fought hard to have that provision be included in the regulations,” said Lindsey Dalley, a member of Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB), a group that has advocated for more parent involvement in the education process. “Now as a result of this one vote, all of that could be undone. The parents of Mesquite, Boulder City, Moapa Valley and other communities will have no say in the selection of one of the most important roles for our schools. That is not the open process that was committed to by this plan and its regulations.”
