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 both virtually and at the Edward A. Greer Education Center Board Room (2832 E Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89121).
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 provided in person, via email, or via voice recording. Email comments should be submitted 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, July 8, 2021
Clark County School District Board of Trustees Meeting
Click here to see the meeting agenda
What happened at this meeting?
Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items
Members of the public submitted public comment regarding:
- Ensuring that the voice of the Southern Paiute is included in the District’s planning.
- Providing culturally relevant and responsive history to students.
- Concerns about bullying not being addressed in the CCSD trustee boardroom during the June meeting.
- Concerns that critical race theory will exacerbate racial divides.
- Concerns that some groups of support staff were excluded from the distribution of CCSD stipends.
- Requests to remove the mask mandate for students of all ages.
- Concerns that students are being asked about vaccinations by school staff.
- Concerns over healthcare provisions for CCSD educators and adequate funding of the Teacher Health Trust Fund.
- Concerns about racism in schools.
- The inclusion of restorative justice as an outcome in the discipline policy.
- Concerns about the distribution of the ELL Bill of Rights in accordance with AB-195.
- Concerns about CCSD meeting accessibility for students and inclusion of student input in CCSD meetings.
Click here to view written public comment submitted online on non-agenda items.
Consent Agenda Highlights:
- Approval to submit and implement the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Reopening Schools Grant to support screening and testing to support the safe opening of Pre-K-12 schools for an approximate total cost of $63,858,000.00
- Approval to purchase hotspots for qualifying households from Kajeet with an estimated one-year total cost of $950,000.00 effective August 14, 2021, through August 13, 2022, to be paid from the ESSER Grant
- Approval to purchase in-home internet connectivity for qualifying households from Cox Communications with an estimated one-year total cost of $650,000.00 effective August 14, 2021, through August 13, 2022, to be paid from the ESSER Grant
- Approval to continue the Safe Routes to School Bicycle Safety Program to support programs that examine conditions around schools and conduct projects and activities to improve safety, in an amount of $330,818.00 from July 9, 2021, through September 30, 2022, to be paid from the Safe Routes to School Bike Safety Grant, Fund 0280
- Approval of the amendment of CCSD Regulation 5121, Student Progress: Grading (Grades Kindergarten through Twelve)
One trustee was not present to vote.
Members of the public submitted public comment on this agenda item regarding:
- Concerns about bullying in CCSD buildings.
- Concerns about building materials used for schools.
- Concerns over whether there are enough buildings to support the seat number at Global Community HS.
- Concerns about whether the new grading policy is equitable or student-centered.
- Requests for additional community input on the new grading policy.
- Concerns about whether the ELL program will be beneficial to English language learners.
- Ensuring students have adequate access to the Internet at home now that 1:1 devices are available to all students.
Trustees Heard Update on the Plan for Path Forward Program of Distance Education and Plan for the Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services
American Rescue Plan (ARP) ESSER requires districts to clarify how local education agencies (LEAs) must meet the statutory requirements to create a plan to safely reopen schools and how SEAs work with LEAs to develop these plans. In accordance with Directive 044, CCSD (an LEA) is required to submit a plan for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services to the Nevada Department of Education (an SEA) by July 14, 2021.By September 10, 2021, CCSD is also required to submit the District’s ARP ESSER Funding Plan.
Highlights of the Plan for Path Forward Program of Distance Education:
- For the 2021-22 school year, CCSD will be offering three separate learning models to parents/guardians:
- Full-time face-to-face instruction at every school, with the exception of Nevada Learning Academy which is a virtual school.
- Full-time distance education at any school with enough participation for the principal to staff the program, and available to all students at Nevada Learning Academy.
- Hybrid instruction (on a limited basis).
- All students will be issued a District-owned device, and the District will subsidize Internet connections for eligible families.
- CCSD will prepare all educators to effectively provide instruction focused on teaching content and language simultaneously during distance education for ELLs.
- CCSD will provide special education and related services in accordance with each student’s IEP as well as technical assistance to educators to meet the diverse needs of identified students.
- Students participating in full-time distance education that qualify for FRL may receive meals at school at no cost.
Highlights of the Plan for the Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services:
- Masks are required indoors for staff who are not fully vaccinated, students in Grades 4 and 5, and on school buses. Masks are optional for students in Grades 6 through 12 who have been fully vaccinated.
- CCSD is partnering with community leaders on the Focus on the Future for Kids Community Input Initiative. The first step is to gather community input on the ARP ESSER federal funds provided to CCSD. Input received will provide a community-informed, kids-first agenda to allocate CCSD’s federal funds and other future community investments. The initiative will also establish a new approach to collecting community input and prioritizing the integration of community voices into CCSD’s planning. This process will allow CCSD to prepare and post on the District’s website any revisions to the plan as required by the guidance. Updates will be provided by no later than December 15, 2021, July 15, 2022, December 15, 2022, and July 15, 2023.
Current Registration for the 2021-22 School Year:
- 95% of currently registered students (or 221,405 students) are registered for face-to-face instruction. The remaining 5% (or 11,853 students) are registered for full-time distance education.
- The number of registered students is currently trending up by nearly 35,000 over this time last year. A registration influx is anticipated in July and August.
Click here to view the presentation.
Click here to view the draft plan.
Members of the public submitted public comment on this agenda item regarding:
- Prioritizing the mental health of educators including support professionals, teachers, and administrators.
- Concerns about the safety, morale, and preparedness of educators into the new school year.
- Concerns about policies related to who is allowed to be masked and unmasked.
- Concerns about the lack of air filters in classrooms.
- Concerns about health risks due to COVID-19 variants.
- Concerns about mask requirements for students.
Click here and here to view written public comment submitted online on this agenda item.
Trustees Heard Update on the 2021 Legislative Session
Trustees received a 2021 Legislative Report following the conclusion of the 2021 Legislative Session. For the first time in over 20 years, all CCSD sponsored bills have passed in a legislative session.
The CCSD bills that passed:
- SB-2 removes duplicative reporting or tasks that take away from the instructional needs of our children.
- SB-66 identifies students statewide who lack a digital device or sufficient internet access. This legislation puts Nevada ahead of other states in potentially accessing future federal funds.
Trustees also heard updates on the following:
- SB-450 will add approximately $3 billion to capital construction to help modernize schools and construct new schools where needed.
- SB-439 creates a special revenue fund for K-12. All school money will go into a single fund where it cannot be siphoned out for some other purpose.
- AB-406 will increase funding for K-12 schools.
Education bills that passed:
- AB-224 creates a pilot program so school districts provide menstrual products in 25% of secondary schools.
- AB-57 temporarily suspends student learning goals as an evaluation measurement of teachers during the 2021-2022 school with a hold harmless for the current school year.
- AB-194 requires school districts to hold the appeal process for a suspension or expulsion in an expedited timeline that is to be determined in regulations by the Nevada Department of Education.
- AB-195 requires school districts to report on the amount of English Learner students and staff in the districts as well as provide the English Learner bill of rights in the primary language of the student and his/her guardian.
- AB-235 requires school districts to provide two annual events a year to help pupils and parents complete the FAFSA.
- AB-257 invites school districts to use federal funds to test and repair HVAC units in schools.
- AB-266 allows teachers to receive extra weights in their evaluation if their class size exceeds recommended class size ratio.
- AB-371 extends provisions related to bullying and cyber-bullying to additionally prohibit and address discrimination based on race.
- SB-102 now requires a student to be 5 years old by the first day of school to attend kindergarten starting in the 2022-2023 school year.
- SB-249 allows students to take mental health days and allows students identification cards to have information for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
- SB-353 allows the state to audit the amount of testing done at the federal, state and district level and requires school districts to submit a waiver if they would like to conduct additional testing.
Education bills that did not pass:
- SB-120 required administrators to reapply for jobs every five years and asked school districts to provide documentation on professional learning.
- AB-255 and SB-111 created partially appointed school boards.
- SB-142 removed the ending fund balance protection from collective bargaining from 16.6% to zero; SB439 set at 12%.
- SB-27 mandated paraprofessionals and coaches to receive a license from the Nevada Department of Education.
- SB-10 and SB-64 revolved around changes to the property tax structure.
Click here to view the presentation.
Members of the public submitted public comment on this agenda item regarding:
- Requests to disaggregate MAP and testing data to identify ELLs who are long-term ELLs and/or who have IEPs and 504s.
- Requests for CCSD to gather information for new incoming students with significant interruptions for formal education.
- Requests to fix ventilation and filtration systems in schools.
Click here to view written public comment submitted online on this agenda item.
Trustees Approved Proposed Amendments to CCSD Policies and Regulations
- Policy 4111 – Amendments to Policy 4111 will change the promotion of in-district support professionals to administration positions from a consent item to an informational item. Out-of-district administrators still need to come before the board for consent. Other changes include language cleanup.
- Regulation 4111 – Amendments include changes to update and reflect current processes. Some of the changes include outlining the minimum qualifications for licensed administrative positions and professional technical administrative positions; updating language to remove the screening process from an HR function to a committee function; outlining that it is responsibility of the Chief HR Officer to ensure a quality, objective, and fair selection process; and new language indicating that principal selections must follow the process outlined in NRS 388G.740.
- Regulation 4291 – The amendment contains new language that allows the Superintendent to utilize a full salary schedule to place or advance at-will employees based on their experience, previous salary, and the position requirements. All other changes are primarily cleanup language.
- Regulation 4360 – Changes will include updates to outdated manual processes that are now facilitated in a human capital management system. All references to the Superintendent being responsible for any part of the resignation process have been removed and replaced with the Chief HR Officer designation.
Trustees approved all motions to pass the policy and regulation amendments 6-0, with one trustee not present to vote.
Trustees Submitted Requests for Future Board Items:
- Presentation from the Bond Oversight Committee
- A work session on AB-495 to discuss the Legislative Committee on Education Study and how the District would like to help the committee ensure that their concerns are addressed
- A work session with NASB (Nevada Association of School Boards) to discuss some of the ongoing work that NASB is doing at the state level, ground in the role of the Board of Trustees, and educate incoming legislatures.