The Ed-Watch series is designed to increase access to information on what decisions are being made regarding public education in Clark County and Nevada.
Clark County School District Board of Trustees
What is the Board of Trustees & what are they responsible for? The CCSD Trustees are publicly elected decision-makers for the school district. They are responsible for providing oversight to the Superintendent and establishing District-wide policy. Trustees are accountable to work with their communities to improve student achievement.
Click here to learn more and see a list of current Trustees
Click here to find your Trustee District
How often does the Board of Trustees meet? Trustees meet twice per month (second and fourth Thursdays) at 5 pm. While all meetings are typically held at the Edward A. Greer Education Center (Board Room): 2832 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89121, all meetings are now held virtually due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Click here for a full list of Trustees meetings and agendas
Click here to visit Hope For Nevada’s #NVEd Calendar
Can community members engage at Trustee Meetings? Decision-making bodies benefit greatly from hearing public input and multiple perspectives. Currently, members of the public can submit comments on agenda and non-agenda items through email or voice recording. Public comment can be submitted by email to Boardmtgcomments@nv.ccsd.net. To submit a voice recording on items listed on the meeting agenda, call 702-799-1166. Voice recorded public comment is limited to 1 minute 30 seconds.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Clark County School District Board of Trustees Meeting
Click here to see the meeting agenda
What happened at this meeting?
Public Comment
Members of the public commented in-person, through voice recorded messages, and written public comment on non-agenda items regarding:
- Requests for an immediate return to school buildings
- Concerns about the emotional, academic, and psychological impact of continued distance learning on students
- Concerns about depression in student athletes and restrictions in place by the Governor on school sports
- Requests to return to full-time in-person learning rather than a hybrid model by Fall 2021
- Concerns about the loss of motivation in students
- Support for continued distance learning for the safety of students
Click here to view public comments submitted online.
Trustees Approved Consent Agenda (6-1)
Consent Agenda Highlights:
- Ratified warrants in the amount of $98,598,288.94
- Authorization to contract with Renaissance Learning to obtain Freckle digital resource licenses for Grades K-5 students, to be purchased through ESSER for an approximate amount of $3,000,000.00
- Ratified purchase awards in the amount of $1,924,738.64
Trustees Heard Presentation on the Projected 2021 Budget
As of December 2020, CCSD is still trending to have better than expected results in the 2021 projected fund balance. Salary and wage and supply and service costs have lowered for the District due to schools not being open for in-person learning. Revenue in areas such as student enrollment is lower than projected, but given the continued savings, CCSD anticipates an unassigned fund balance of just over $54 million and over $40 million in excess reserves going into 2021.
Budget uncertainties include the continued impact of COVID-19, state legislative funding reductions for K-12, student enrollment uncertainties, possible recession impacts, and potential restrictions on federal funds.
Click here to view the budget presentation.
Board Heard Presentation on Legislative Updates
Trustees heard discussion and updates regarding state legislation that could affect education, including reports of current legislative issues and events, the establishment of the district’s position on proposed legislation, and guidance to the Superintendent and legislative staff.
Legislative session update:
- February 25 marked the 26th day of the 120 day legislative session.
- All meetings of the legislature are virtual with no timetable for when the legislative building will be open to the public.
- 359 bills have been introduced as of February 25, 2021 and CCSD is currently tracking 126 of those bills.
- There are two important upcoming deadlines:
- By March 12: The Legislature must take action on any initiative petitions. If no action is taken, the petitions will go to the 2022 ballot.
- By March 15: Legislatures must introduce their bills.
Highlights on Bill Drafts introduced in Week One:
- Superintendent Jara presents to Legislature – Superintendent Jara provided presentations to the Senate Commission on Education and the Assembly Commission on Education discussing the CCSD response to COVID-19 and the upcoming school reopening plan.
- Senate Bill 83 – SB83 authorizes the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) to waive or pause the requirements to administer criterion reference exams, known in Nevada as SBAC. The United States Department of Education recently announced that no waivers would be provided; however, the Department is granting flexibility with the testing window, the length of the exam, and an allowance for completing testing remotely if necessary. If SB83 passes, this bill would provide NDE and school districts with flexibilities in those areas.
- Senate Bill 2 – SB2 is a bill draft from CCSD. This bill seeks to reduce the loads of educators. After what was described as a successful hearing, CCSD is currently awaiting a work session in order to move the bill forward to a vote of the full senate floor.
- Senate Bill 27 – SB27, which was sponsored by the Department of Education, seeks to streamline the teacher licensing process. The purpose of the bill is to amend some issues of concern regarding removing the requirement for paraprofessionals to have to be licensed by the State and clarifying that an investigation by the State Superintendent is limited only to licensed employees. This bill passed the Senate Committee on Education on February 24, 2021.
- Senate Bill 76 – SB76, sponsored by the NDE, seeks to reduce reporting frequency and remove commissions currently overseen by the Department. There was some opposition to getting rid of the Council on Academic Standards and the RPDP regional boards. At the direction of Chair Mo Dennis, the conversation with NDE will continue in order to bring a bill forward that the committee will approve.
- Senate Bill 66 – On February 24, CCSD presented their second bill draft to the Senate Committee on Education, SB66, which addresses internet connectivity. This bill receives support from all the school districts, Cox Communications, and the Vegas Chamber as well as the Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology who will be tasked with putting together a gap analysis of the connectivity needs in the state and eventually a fiscal plan that the state can adopt. It is anticipated that the Senate Committee on Education will vote on this bill early next week.
- Senate Bill 142 – SB142 repeals a provision that was passed last session that allows for a budgeted ending fund balance of no more than 16.6% to not be subject to negotiation for an employee organization.
- Assembly Bill 57 – AB57 is a bill draft from Washoe County School District that seeks to suspend student learning goals from the NEPF through the 2022-23 SY. In collaboration with CCA, a friendly amendment was provided to ensure that certain schools are still able to use the metric as a measure for potential bonuses.
- Assembly Bill 159 – AB159 is a COVID liability protection for schools and is sponsored by multiple Assembly members.
Members of the public shared written and verbal comment regarding concerns that voter rights to select trustees will be impacted, concerns about trustee conduct, and concerns about the lack of communication from the Superintendent and trustees with the Black community.
Click here to read the 2021 Legislative Update.
Click here to read public comment on this agenda item.
Trustees Approve New Memorandum of Agreement Regarding the Negotiated Agreement between CCSD and the Education Support Employees Association
Trustees approved the New Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Regarding the Negotiated Agreement between CCSD and the Education Support Employees Association. The agreement temporarily allows employees to perform work outside of their general job duties to minimize or eliminate any need for a reduction in force. There is no financial cost to implement the MOA.
One trustee abstained from vote due to their employment with the Nevada State Education Association and a fiscal note within the MOA that affects members.
Members of the public submitted recorded comment regarding concerns about the workload put on support staff and the potential to create unhappy and unsafe working conditions for support staff if the MOA is approved.
Click here to read the reference materials for the approval.
Trustees Approved Amendment to the Negotiated Agreement between the Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association
Trustees approved the Amendment to the Negotiated Agreement between the Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association. The new MOA clears up technical and grammatical errors from the first agreement. The new MOA will see the inclusion of the flushing out of the Master Practitioner program. The board has frequently expressed a desire to home-grow teachers and keep leaders in the classroom. The Master Practitioner program is a 4-year process in which teachers will be rewarded by staying and becoming the in-school leaders that the district needs. There is a fiscal impact to this MOA which will not occur until the 2024-25 SY if all cohorts and members graduate. The financial impact would be rolling and would consist of $539,240.
One Trustee abstained from the vote due to their employment with the Nevada State Education Association.
Click here to read the reference materials for the approval.
Trustee Agenda Requests
- Request for the CCSD Board of Trustees to set guidelines in the future for no-bid contracts
- Request to discuss legislation that creates appointed boards
Superintendent Communication
Superintendent Jara shared hopes for plans to celebrate the graduating class of 2021, potentially at an in-person venue, as well as a desire to get students back to campus strategically and safely, including to begin extracurricular activities. Seniors, who are normally not included in intramural sports at the end of the school year, will be included in them this school year. The board will share more information on these updates at a later date.
Upcoming Meeting Announcement
Monday, March 1 at 5:30 pm: Joint meeting with the AZAC
Wednesday, March 3 at 8:00 am: Work session at 8:00 am