CCSD Trustees Meet At Reservation

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Top officials of the Clark County School District (CCSD) travelled to the Moapa River Indian Reservation last week to discuss needs of Native American students and how to improve educational outcomes for this group in the local community.

CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara and the entire CCSD Board of Trustees convened a public meeting on Thursday evening, Feb. 6 in the Moapa Band of Paiutes (MBOP) Tribal Government Center. They heard a report about educational achievement among the district-wide Native American student population and heard public comment about education issues for nearly three hours.

CCSD Assistant Superintendent Kelly O’Rourke gave the report detailing achievement data. The report showed a significant gap between the performance of Native American students and that of the CCSD as a whole on standardized tests scores for English, Math and Science at all grade levels. There were also similar gaps in high school graduation rates. In addition, the percentage of students who are chronically absent from school was also markedly higher among the Native American group compared to the general population O’Rourke reported.

O’Rourke also pointed out that three local schools: Ute Perkins, Mack Lyon Middle School, and Moapa Valley High School are among the top 5 in the district in their percentage of Native American student population. Ute Perkins is number one on that list with 11.9 percent of its students being Native American.

Finally the report listed a number of CCSD programs and initiatives that have been put in place to improve access and equity to Native Americans in the district.

During public comment periods, the discussion centered around ways that Indian Education programs in CCSD are falling short in addressing these performance gaps. A main topic of discussion was the lack of resources for federally-recognized Indian Education programs in the district.

Diana Croce, one of two Student Success Advocates (SSAs) acting as counselor to Native American kids in CCSD said that her work is focused solely on urban areas of the district.

“We don’t even have enough staff to keep the Indian Ed office open in town while we make our rounds of schools,” Croce said.

This left very little for the Native American kids residing in Moapa Valley, Croce said. She noted that there as no longer an SSA position available for the Moapa Education Support Center (MESC) on the reservation.

Reservation resident Della Frank, who works as CCSD Indian Education Program Project Facilitator and also coordinates services at the MESC, confirmed that there were not nearly enough resources to keep the local center open and providing all needs.

“Right now we have one project facilitator to do everything, (including duties in Las Vegas),” Frank said. “We are stretched way to thin.”

Local teacher Brian Dorsey said that he has provided tutoring services to local kids at the MESC for many years. He reported that more help is needed.

“I would like to let you know that we are short-handed there,” Dorsey said. “Some nights we have a lot of students to work with and we need more teachers to help those kids.”

Trustees acknowledged these concerns but said that the district is struggling with finding enough funding to provide all that is needed. Board President Lola Brooks called on parents to contact state legislators and insist on more state funding for education.
“It is crucial for all of us to have a united front in the next session especially,” Brooks said.

But Indian Education advocates asserted that it was more than just a state funding issue. Mercedes Krause, who serves on the Nevada Minority Affairs Commission and as Chair of the Clark County American Indian Democratic Caucus, said that the district is passing up federal funding because of its miscalculation of Native American students.

Krause noted that the data shows nearly 1200 Native American students in the district, but only around 600 are enrolled in the Indian Education program eligible to bring federal resources.

Joe Caruso of the CCSD Community Engagement Dept. responded, admitting that a miscalculation had occurred. Surveys seeking information on who qualified for the federal program only had gone out to 600 families, he said. But the situation is being remedied, he added.

“We sat down with Della (Frank) to try and figure it out,” Caruso said. “We worked with technology services and, as of tonight, the surveys are going out to 1,422 students and their families.”
Superintendent Jara said that with more accurate eligibility numbers, the programs should see an increase in federal funding.

“I just want to make it clear that we have been missing out on federal funding,” Krause responded.
She added that CCSD is obligated by law to provide that funding to eligible Native American kids.

“Native Americans are not just another racial group,” she said. “There is a political obligation here. It is a trust and treaty obligation that is not being met and more urgency needs to be put on it.”
CCSD Trustee Linda Young said that she had served long enough on the board to remember when the Indian Education program was functioning well.

“I remember coming out here in 2005 and all these things were in place,” Young said adding that there was a full staff at the MESC at that time including a rural SSA, 11 month staffers, and regular dialog with school principals.

“It is hurtful to come out here and see that all these things we worked for are gone,” Young said. “We already know what to do because we did it. It was successful. We have to bring it back.”

Young added that it was not enough that the district simply send out surveys to Native American families. “They won’t come back,” she said. “That culture doesn’t respond to that. There are trust issues there. They respond to personal contact. You have to go out on the ground and find these folks.”

Logandale resident, Lindsey Dalley, who serves on the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB) made a comment that the programs meant to provide access and equity listed in O’Rourke’s report were not reaching kids in the rural areas.

“It’s great that you offer those to urban kids, but in the Moapa Valley 50 percent of them are not even available to us,” Dalley said. “No matter how great they are, they are not effective to our students.”

Dalley acknowledged that it is not practical to expect that all programs available to urban kids be offered in the rurals. “But we do want to emphasize that there are ways to restore equity if you add teacher positions to rural area schools,” Dalley said. “With that we can add programs that can supplement some of these things that we don’t have access to.”

Moapa resident Shari Lyman explained this point further. “When you cut a position in a rural school it has a profound impact,” she said. “For example, cutting a position at the middle school or the high school cuts a program. And when you cut a position at Perkins, you cut a whole grade! That is how it works on the ground out here.”

In a later comment, Dalley added that the Moapa Valley community has been working with CCSD officials to get the attention of state education officials regarding rural funding for outlying Clark County schools.

“The state funds all rural schools in Nevada at a higher rate than those in Clark County,” Dalley said. “In fact they don’t even recognize that there are rural schools in Clark County. So urban schools have to shoulder the extra burden of the additional cost of rural schools. The rural zip codes in Clark County are not being treated the same as rural zip codes outside of Clark County.”

Jara acknowledged this idea in a comment. “Clark County is actually the fourth largest rural district in Nevada,” he said. “But our rurals are not funded like other rurals. That is something that we are working together with you to address.”

In another comment Mercedes Krause talked about the reason behind chronic absenteeism among Native American students. She said that the Nevada Ready report showed that Native Americans have a very low level of emotional security in school.
“I believe that school safety and security is a factor in that,” Krause said.

This was a topic picked up by several local parents. Moapa resident Bob Lyman, who serves as a member on the CCSD Safety Committee, pointed out the long history of the community requesting security measures be installed at MVHS.

“We have no security for that campus,” Lyman said. “It is an open campus. People can come and go from the front to the back. It is a disaster waiting to happen. We have voiced our concerns many times but thus far haven’t gotten far.”

MVCEAB president Wendy Mulcock, of Logandale, emphasized that discussion about security issues had been ongoing with CCSD for more than 10 years. She pointed out that a remote rural community, with a small police force that must cover thousands of square miles and a volunteer fire department, has much longer emergency response times than in urban areas.

“Can you imagine an active shooter situation where it takes as much as 30-40 minutes for a police response?” Mulcock asked. “Our school staff have to be trained as first responders. We need deeper active-shooter training.”

Mulcock said that the community had identified a program provided by a security training firm called Fight Back Nation. Principals, teachers, parent groups and MVCEAB had all gone to CCSD officials requesting that this training be conducted in local schools.

“The best thing is, we aren’t actually asking for any funding from you on this,” Mulcock told the trustees. “Our community is backing this training and we are willing to raise all the funds to pay for it. All we need is for you to smile and give us the permission to go ahead and do it.”