By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Reaching a fairer formula for funding K-12 education in Nevada will be a top priority at the upcoming session of the Nevada State Legislature. At least, that is what Clark County School District (CCSD) Superintendent Jesus Jara told a group of parents, teachers and school administrators at a special town hall meeting held at Hughes Middle School in Mesquite on Tuesday afternoon, January 8.
All residents of Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley were invited to participate in the meeting. About 75 people were in attendance.
“The funding formula in the state hasn’t been updated since 1967,” Jara told the audience. “And it is just not helping our children in improving their performance. So the way I see it, when you have something that is not working, you change it.”
The funding formula was just one element in a set of goals and broad concepts presented by Jara at the Mesquite meeting. These concepts are expected to fill out a five-year strategic plan for the CCSD which Jara will be presenting to the Board of Trustees on January 18.
The Mesquite meeting was the first stop in a series of public meetings meant to gather community input about the concepts of the plan.
Jara outlined 15 broad goals: four related to student success; two for teachers, principals and school staffs; six for fiscal management of the district; and three for parent and community support.
The student success goals focussed on providing access and equity to all CCSD students. Jara pointed out that the district has a huge gap in academic achievement. He cited that there is a 40 percent difference between the highest and lowest scoring students in Math, English and Science.
“That is urgent, and we need to address that right now,” Jara commented.
One of the key efforts to do that must be an adjustment to the state’s weighted funding formula, Jara said. This formula, which was passed as Senate Bill 178 in the 2017 Legislative session, is meant to funnel more per-pupil dollars to students with greater needs. It aims to provide equity by granting schools the resources needed to teach every child.
But since 2017, the formula has not been fully implemented in the state. That is because of funding. By some estimates, it would cost roughly $1.2 billion for full implementation.
Jara said that addressing the formula would be his highest priority when approaching the Legislature later this year.
“This has to be fixed,” Jara said of the weighted funding formula. “If it is not, then just adding more funding won’t solve the problem. You have to tackle that central issue. Otherwise, we are just dancing around the problems and not addressing anything.”
Jara said that the formula should also include additional funding for the rural students in Clark County. He acknowledged that the per-pupil costs are higher for serving far-flung rural students than for urban areas, because of the economy of scale.
An important fact needs to be recognized, Jara said. In addition to being the largest urban district in the state, CCSD is also the fourth largest rural district in the state, according to Jara’s reckoning of the numbers. Unfortunately, rural programs in CCSD have not received additional state funding.
Jara said that this is unfair to both rural and urban students in CCSD. “Kids that cost us more to serve, we should get more funding for them,” Jara said. “And the dollars should follow the students.”
Because of that funding inequity, Jara admitted that rural students had, in many ways, been afforded less opportunities than urban counterparts.
“You all know well that we have limited opportunities in rural schools for things like workforce training,” Jara said. “So what do we need to do differently to be able to help all kids. There are things we need to do to help you provide rural kids the same opportunities as they have in the city.”
Some of Jara’s goals focused on ensuring that there are always highly effective teachers in the classrooms. He admitted that 3 percent of classroom teachers in CCSD are not licensed. Rather they are operating in classrooms either as long-term substitutes or are enrolled in the alternate-route-to-licensure program. Jara recognized this as a critical problem needing to be addressed.
“You’re never going to hear excuses from me on this,” he said. “We are going to set some very rigorous targets in this area, and we will hit those targets.”
Other goals sought to address problems of finance in the CCSD. Jara said his plan would seek areas of waste in the district and try to save money that could be directed back to the classroom.
One of the main sources of savings would come from better management of utility costs, Jara said. But he also cited other areas of waste including 5 percent of CCSD buses being non-functional, 3.8 percent of food spoilage in lunch service, significant waste in landscaping services and more.
Jara said that his plan would require more transparency in finance and budgeting. This he said would encourage a better understanding of how things are funded and the shortfalls of the state funding formula.
Finally were goals for better engagement of parents and community. Jara acknowledged a fundamental lack of trust in the community for CCSD central management. “I’ve heard about that trust issue loud and clear, believe me,” he said.
His plan would create a better mechanism for receiving feedback from parents, students and community members – and then addressing their concerns, Jara said. It would also seek for better ways to engage the public in the solutions, he said.
“I want to be clear, this is not my plan, or the board’s plan,” Jara said. “Rather this is OUR plan. This is an opportunity for you to provide input on things that you feel might be missing.”
During the public input period which followed several concerns and ideas were raised by the public.
Logandale resident Lindsey Dalley, who serves on the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) as well as the Mack Lyon School Operational Team (SOT), said that he wanted more detail on how Jara’s “high level goals” would actually be implemented on the ground.
“We have sat through presentations like this for many years with different superintendents,” Dalley said. “Goals are great, but we have had trouble of seeing the water get all the way down to the end of the row, as we say it in the rurals.”
Dalley suggested that specific milestones and deliverables be set that are clear to everyone. Then progress on those deliverables should be reviewed regularly, at least every six months, he said.
Dalley also cautioned Jara on where he should seek feedback on the success of the implementation. “You need to take feedback from SOTs and CEABs, and not just from CCSD middle management,” he said. “The middle management will blow smoke and tell you what you want to hear every time. We have seen that. But we are the ones down at the end of the row and we can tell you how much water has gotten to us.”
Mesquite City Attorney, Bob Sweetin asked whether Jara had plans to request a rollback of the legislation mandating a full reorganization of CCSD which was passed in 2017.
Jara responded that he had no plans to request major changes as he already agrees with the concept of pushing autonomy and funding down to the school administrative level. However, he would be seeking small changes to the law to allow for some consolidation of central CCSD staff that he had already made.
Logandale resident Larry Moses, a former principal of Moapa Valley High School, agreed with Jara on the equity issues existing between rural and inner city schools. He said that he has watched as important fine arts and vocational programs have been dropped from MVHS due to staffing positions being lost to fund inner city schools.
“Moapa Valley High School has consistently been among the best in the district,” Moses said. “But it seems that, under the current system, if you are a successful school, CCSD starts pulling resources from you. That’s not much of an incentive for high performance.”
Jara listened closely to the feedback provided by area residents. He expressed appreciation to those who had participated in the meeting.
“We need to improve with a great sense of urgency,” Jara said. “We don’t have time to waste. Kids go to school one time in life. So we adults need to get it right.”
