By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Amid all of the confusion over the loss of block schedules at local high schools, a small group of retired CCSD school administrators offered their communities the possibility of a better alternative.
During public comments periods in two separate public meetings last week, this small embassy of esteemed former school principals quietly came forward to announce an ongoing effort by a local ad-hoc committee that could forever change education in the northeast Clark County communities for the better.
The first announcement was made toward the end of a parents meeting held on Tuesday night, Mar. 7 at Moapa Valley High School. During a final public comment period of the meeting, former Virgin Valley High School principal Riley Frei, a resident of Logandale; and former MVHS principal Larry Moses stood to make a final comment.
Speaking to a crowd made restless by the announcement that MVHS had no other option but to drop the block schedule in the next school year, Frei began by asking a series of rhetorical questions.
“Is this latest CCSD directive going to increase ACT scores?” he asked. “Is it going to increase scholarships? Is it going to increase participation in CTE (Career and Technical Education) activities? Is it going to increase dual enrollment college programs? Is it going to increase college readiness? Is it going to improve graduation rates?”
Frei pointed out that members of the community had worked hard over the years to address these issues directly and try to improve education at local schools. But those unique approaches, just like the current block schedule issue, could be up-ended at any time by CCSD central, he said.
“The reality is that we have been out here, as a school, functioning to the best of our ability for a really long time,” Frei said. “But we are just not really allowed to be involved in a lot of the decisions that are being made.”
Frei said that, shortly after his retirement from CCSD last year, he was invited to meet with some “very smart people” who were interested in forming legislation to create an independent school district for the communities of northeastern Clark County.
This group consists of former school administrators and a number of education advocates from both Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley communities, Frei explained.
“We have met extensively and looked at it pretty closely,” Frei said. “We have worked with state legislators on it. There is a bill that is currently in draft form that is moving forward up in Carson City.”
Moses, also a member of this adhoc committee, said that the group would be seeking community input on the bill draft in the coming days.
“This bill draft is going in, folks, that is a fact,” Moses said. “It is moving forward. (This committee) has given some suggestions of what we need in that bill. But we want to know what you-all think needs to be in that bill to make it palatable to this community.”
Moses said that a community meeting would be held after the bill draft was complete where local residents could get involved and provide input.
“We would like to have you all there,” he said.
Later in the week, former Virgin Valley school administrators Kathy Davis and Cliff Hughes attended a meeting of the Virgin Valley Community Education Advisory Board to make a similar announcement about this committee in public comment period. They explained that they had also been invited to participate.
“Our group has been working on this for a while,” Hughes said. “We decided that this is a good time to get the word out about it. This is a movement. There are legislators involved. There is going to be a bill before the legislature this year to possibly break us away from CCSD.”
Davis acknowledged that the idea of independence from CCSD had been discussed before in the Virgin Valley community.
“When I was principal at the (Virgin Valley) Elementary School, our SOT team talked about it,” Davis said. “We wondered whether we would ever be able to have our own district where our children would be considered as local students wher we could fulfill their specific needs and the unique needs of our schools. Is that something we are able to do? That is what this group is looking into.”
Davis admitted that this kind of change might be viewed with a bit of anxiety by some teachers and administrators in the community.
“Of course, teachers and administrators might be nervous wondering what it will do to their salary or benefits,” Davis said. “But all of us recognize that they are the lifeblood of our schools. And we don’t want them to panic or leave. It important that we get it right.”
Hughes agreed that there were many questions still to be answered. He said that it was estimated that the new district would include about 4,700 students. This is similar in size to other rural districts in the state, he said. Projections on funding had been made using per pupil formulas.
Budget studies had also been done using models from other similarly-sized rural district budgets, Hughes said.
“One of the goals is to have us recognized as a rural district in the state,” Hughes said. “Every rural district in the state is funded at a higher level than what we are out here.”
“We don’t have all the answers yet,” he admitted “We also understand that no teachers are going to support this if they feel like they are going backwards on salaries or benefits. So the goal is to get this all figured out. We have looked into the funding and stuff. What this proposes is a feasibility study and a pilot program to look at everything and see where we are at.”
“We just feel like it might be a good time for us to determine our own future and our own direction for our schools out here in our valley,” Hughes said.
Hughes informed the VVCEAB members that additional information would be coming out as the bill draft is completed.
“There is going to be some town hall meetings set up that will get input and give more information,” Hughes said. “Just keep an eye open for those.”
VVCEAB member Jeff Reynolds spoke in general support of the idea at the meeting.
“I have not heard anybody that has said bad things about forming our own district,” Reynolds said. “We want the local control. And I think we could be more streamlined and cut a lot of fat out the expenses. So let us know how we can help you in this effort.”
5 thoughts on “Local Effort Afoot to Create Independent School District”
I notice there is no information on the curriculum if an independent school is formed nor what “fat” will be cut out. Unfortunately, several of the “experts” named in this article have been pushing hard for a Christian school in the Overton area which takes away their credibility to accomplish getting an “independent “ school district in the Virgin Valley. Moses, in particular, has been writing a column in this paper for years with an air of negativity of just about everything. Perhaps he isn’t a great spokesperson for attempting to get this bill going. His failed Desert Valley College in Logandale to promote LDS values is another example of his ineffectiveness.
The other glaring issue is student achievement in the Virgin Valley which on the whole is pretty darn good. So, if students are doing well here what’s really the point of local control? Yep, we all get it, more religious input. And, the elected officials in Carson City will see right through that just as they have done so many times before. This will never pass.
I hope this bill passes. Time to get out OF CCSD. CCSD is THE MOST CORRUPT district in the state. I hope the VVCEAB and MVCEAB can pull together and make this come to fruition.
We need more info before we parents say yay or nay to this idea. For example, WHO will be in charge of this new district? I’m sure that has been discussed. The objection I have is the small group spearheading this has made their true intentions known in the past and it just will not fly with lawmakers.
There is an old saying, “The person from out of town with a briefcase is always the expert.” How this fallacy or falsehood applies here is, “Someone from Las Vegas always knows better and is more pure than someone local.”
Anyone who has served on a School Organizational Team and seen the CCSD budget games played with our schools, or on a Community Educational Advisory Board and watched CCSD discipline our principals for helping our students, or served on a CCSD committee and had to endure the abuse for merely being part of our community, or has attended enough CCSD Trustee meetings to see the deception foisted on the trustees by central staff, or has watched the petty drama played out between CCSD trustees to jockey for control, knows when someone speaks uninformed and without knowledge. CCSD is ripe with personal agendas, strife, incompetence ,and not a school district, but rather an adult full employment district that damages our kids.
Criticizing the solution before understanding the problem creates more drama and solves nothing.
That’s all well and good but doesn’t address Denise’s comment above. Who’s going to run this independent show? You going to hire school administrators from out of town or just appoint someone in your innerr circle? You going to cut the budget for the new schools or still stick with CCSD guides? You going to use the same curriculum?
Old sayings are cute but seldom useful, yours implies you will keep this “independent” school district closed to outsiders and operate more like a secret society. This idea needs to be more realistic if you want any bill to pass. I have lots of old says to add but that accomplishes nothing.