On Feb. 5, Clark County School District (CCSD) held its 10th Community Dreams session, one of a long line of meetings to discuss future change in the school district. Around 20 individuals around Moapa Valley gathered to discuss the future of the district, from parents to principals. In the end, the virtual meeting turned to a more personalized discussion with CCSD deputy superintendent of business operations Felicia Gonzalez.

Virtual meeting focuses on the ideal

The meeting, held in the Moapa Valley High School (MVHS) cafeteria, started off on Zoom. Those in attendance were able to listen as CCSD representatives shared information and data gathered since September 2025 and discussed various “dreams,” or ideas for the ideal future of CCSD and its students. Forty-eight thousand people participated in various polls and questionnaires starting in September — 63% of whom were students.

Most commonly emerging themes were captured by three Dreams representatives: a student, a CCSD parent and a state JAG director. Students most often emphasized a longing for community and opportunity to connect with friends and teammates. Parents shared wishes for students to have more hands-on experience with real-world skills and wraparound services to support students going through personal crises. Teachers and higher-ups voiced a desire for students to have more opportunity for workplace readiness. Also noted were the importance of time management, setting goals and learning hard skills in conjunction with actual learning.

“Forget dreaming, we are barely surviving.”

After talking about the ideal future for the average CCSD student, talk moved on to various short-term goals. At this point, Deputy Superintendent Gonzalez stepped in, after being informed that what was being discussed was not so applicable to rural schools in Moapa Valley and Mesquite.

Immediately, talk turned to recent budget cuts. With falling birthrates and less faith in CCSD, student enrollment across the district has dropped significantly, particularly in Las Vegas. Budgets have tightened once again, with MVHS in particular losing $1,000 per student for the upcoming school year.

As discussion for extending mental health help and extracurriculars for students continued in the background, the gathered crowd shared the loss of English teachers and band classes. One participant claimed, “Being asked for our dreams while we aren’t even meeting the baseline feels disingenuous. It’s like the district doesn’t care.” The most frequent solution voiced was simply that rural schools need to be viewed in a different way than urban schools. They particularly need to, considering that while new laws allowing students and parents to choose schools works well in a large city, rural students do not have that choice without lengthy and detrimental commutes.

Promises for open discussion in future

Gonzalez, listening to complaints, assured that she shared the concerns of rural schools and is more than willing to go to bat for them. She agreed that the principals of rural schools should not be fighting for every dollar they need.

She also assured participants that revised budgets would be coming out soon, and transparency would become more available as the new administration settles in. With any luck, the new CFO will have some answers for rural schools within the next few weeks, and she is more than willing to work out formulas that work for rural schools in ways city formulas do not.

Hopeful for fixes in the future, another participant said near the end of discussion, “I hope that the district doesn’t see us as a rural town that needs to be saved from itself. We are a masterclass in succeeding: doing the most with so little.”

The next Dreams meeting will take place Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m.