No One Asked Me But… (October 13, 2021)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… A couple of weeks ago a rather unique meeting happened. The State Board of Education, the governing body of the public schools in Nevada, met with the Clark County School District Board of Trustees, the governing board of the largest local school district in Nevada. The fact that this has never happened before may testify to the seriousness of the issues discussed.

The stated purpose of the meeting was to discuss a more effective implementation of NRS. 388G.500 – 388G.810. These are the laws designed to reorganize large school districts (i.e. Clark County School District) in the state of Nevada. Those who were involved in hammering out the provisions found in this law have observed for the most part this law has been openly and defiantly ignored by the Clark County School District administration under the direction of the CCSD Board of Trustees.

Mark Newburn, The State Board of Education Representative for the Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley area, explained it this way. “The debate for the legislation five years ago was not about whether they’re going to do it (the reorganization) or not. The debate was: Are we going to try this eponymous model? Or are we going to break up the school district? That might still be the long term two solutions.”

For full disclosure, five years ago, I served on the two legislative sub-committees that developed the law as it is written today. I was in favor of breaking the District into smaller more manageable and localized Districts. I lost that battle from day one when the chairman of the committee opened the meeting with the statement that we were not there to break up the District we were there to reorganize the district.

Out of those committee meetings NRS 388G.500-388G.810 was created. The Clark County School District immediately began to violate the law as written and no one has held them accountable.

At the completion of the committee meetings, it was recommended that a legislative oversight committee be formed to insure the District’s compliance with the law. This was not done. The failure of the District to comply with the law as written would indicate that this lack of oversight has emasculated the intent of the reorganization of CCSD as required by law.

At this point I believe it is time for the State Board of Education to take a drastic step and to take control of the Clark County School District, suspending the power of the local board until such time as the District is in compliance with State law.

While this sounds rather radical, let me suggest the present CCSD Board of Trustees and administration has shown callous disregard for the law by displaying open hostility to the reforms required under NRS. 388G.500-810 making it impossible for them to carry out any meaningful reform. The CCSD Board of Trustees is the governmental body responsible for all operations, finances, and services and therefore must accept the responsibility for the shortcomings within the District that have led to the abysmal educational performance of the educational processes in CCSD.

It would be irresponsible for the State Department of Education to leave the present CCSD Board of Trustees in charge of the District. The State Department of Education would shut down any private or charter school that malfunction on the scale of the CCSD. I believe the State Department of Education should develop an over sight committee with the power to direct compliance with state law and give the District one year to come into compliance with the state law.

Upon failure to do so the State should suspend the CCSD Board of Trustees and place an interim board of directors made up of the following: a member appointed by the mayors of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mesquite, Boulder City, and a member selected by the Clark County Commissioners to represent all the unincorporated areas of Clark County. The Governor would appoint a Chairman who would vote only to break a tie vote among the committee members.

This committee would be responsible for day to day operations of the Clark County School District. They would reform the District bringing it into compliance with the laws of the State of Nevada paying specific attention to NRS 388G.500-388G. 810. This would include determining what funds are restricted and what are unrestricted. They would develop a Weighted Student funding Formula as is required by law.

They would review all the present policies and regulations of the District amending each to conform to the reorganization plan stipulated under NRS 388G.500-810, as well as insuring that all new policies and regulations fall within the law. This committee would be responsible for hiring the Superintendent for CCSD. They would assume other responsibilities not listed but are inherent in the position of a Board of Trustees of a local school district within the State of Nevada.

This committee would continue to function until it was determined by the Governor, the State Board of Education, and the committee that the local Board of Trustees of the Clark County School District is capable of managing the District as stipulated by the Nevada Revised Statues. When the elected board is re-established, it should be made up of nine members with representatives that correspond to the legislative committee boundaries.

While I still believe the better course of action would be the breaking up of the CCSD in smaller more manageable units, I have accepted the fact that whipping that dead horse will not make it happen. We can only hope that the new interest shown by the State Board of Education may well get the wounded horse of reorganization back on its feet, and with this thought rests the hope for the recovery of what was once a thoroughbred in the stable of American education.

While this smacks of control of the schools by a source outside our locality, which I would in most case oppose, the present conditions make this step necessary on a temporary basis. Since we apparently will not be able to have smaller local districts, we must ask the state take over until we can establish a county wide organization that will allow for a greater degree of local control.

Thought of the week…. “I support local control in our educational area because parents and those closest to our students know what is best for them; not an uninformed board of individuals that have no concept of what is needed locally….”
– Kim Hoover