Tag: e2 student learning

Nevada Ed Watch 6/13/19

Posted on by Opportunity 180

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 5pm at the Edward A. Greer Education Center (Board Room): 2832 E. Flamingo Road, 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. Community members can sign up to speak after the agenda has been posted– by calling the Board Office at (702) 799-1072 at least 3 hours before the scheduled meeting, or signing up in-person at the beginning of the meeting. Prior to each agenda item being voted on, speakers can share their perspective after the Board’s discussion and prior to the vote.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Clark County School District Board of Trustees Meeting

Click here to see the meeting agenda

What happened at this meeting?

Public Comment

Many members of the public provided testimony to Trustees regarding the recent decision to cut 170 Dean positions at the Clark County School District. Click here to read about this in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Trustees Heard a Presentation About the Removal of the Dean Position

Superintendent Jara provided a statement and brief presentation about his decision to eliminate the Dean role and displace current Deans. The Superintendent assured the public that school safety will continue to be a priority for the District.

Trustees Unanimously Approved the Consent Agenda

Consent agenda highlights:

  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Local Plan
  • IDEA: Early Childhood Project
  • Airforce Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Unit (JROTC)
  • Grant Submissions:
    • Victory Schools Authorization
    • Funds to continue to the Youthful Offender Program at High Desert State Prison
    • Nevada Ready 21 Technology Grant
    • Tesla Career & Technical Education Grant
  • Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)
  • Books for School Libraries
  • New members of Bond Oversight Committee: Al Davis & Eugene Lazaroff
  • Repairs & updates to a number of school buildings and playground facilities
  • Annual Membership to Council of Great City Schools

Trustees Repealed the CCSD Governance Policy E-2: Student Learning

The E-2: Student Learning policy relates to identifying strategies to improve student learning. This policy is being repealed because the active Focus 2024 strategic plan addresses this.

Click here to see the policy.

Trustees Approved Updates to CCSD Construction Bids Policy (7210) and the Purchasing Authority Policy (3311)

The construction bids policy addresses the major differences that have occurred between construction bids and the final costs.

The following updates were made to the construction bids policy:

  • Changing the designee from Assistant Superintendent to the Chief of Facilities
  • Construction change orders cannot cumulatively exceed 3 percent of the original contract for new construction
  • Changes in services cannot cumulatively exceed 5% of the original contract

Click here to see the policy.

Corresponding changes were made to the Purchasing Authority Policy.

Trustees Heard a Legislative Report

CCSD Staff provided a report to recap the end of the 2019 legislative session. The presentation focused on bills and priorities that were part of CCSD’s legislative platform, which include:

  • Modernizing the K-12 Funding Formula (SB543)
  • Preserving Ending Fund Balance (SB543)
  • Increasing Funding for School Safety (SB89, SB551, SB528)
  • Incentives for Title I Teachers (AB196)
  • Additional Resources for Read by Grade 3 (AB289)
  • Preserving an Elected School Board (Failure of AB491, AB57, SB105)
  • Continuation of Early Childhood Education (SB84, SB555)
  • Separate Revenue Stream to Support Vegas PBS (SB501)

Click here to see the presentation.

Potential Future Agenda Items:

  • Information about School Safety funding
  • Information about learning strategist placement
  • Review the decision to remove the Dean role, including the options that were considered, and how the decision was made.
  • Budget updates
  • Revisit governance policies

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Nevada Ed Watch 5/9/19

Posted on by Opportunity 180

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 5pm at the Edward A. Greer Education Center (Board Room): 2832 E. Flamingo Road, 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. Community members can sign up to speak after the agenda has been posted– by calling the Board Office at (702) 799-1072 at least 3 hours before the scheduled meeting, or signing up in-person at the beginning of the meeting. Prior to each agenda item being voted on, speakers can share their perspective after the Board’s discussion and prior to the vote.

Thursday, May 9, 2019

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 provided testimony to Trustees regarding:

  • Request for support of infrastructure improvements at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts
  • Concerns about bullying in schools, working conditions for educators, and demotions for support staff
  • Concerns about School Organization Teams (SOTs) and parent voices not being heard in school hiring decisions, as well as the process for informing the school community about leadership changes

Trustees Unanimously Approved the Consent Agenda

Consent agenda highlights:

  • Agreement between CCSD and Alexander Dawson Foundation to provide a summer program and year-long mentorship for students.
  • Authorization to apply for the Indian Education Program, to provide American Indian and Alaska Native students with the opportunity to meet the same challenging state standards as all other students.

Click here to see the full consent agenda.

Trustees Approved Removing the E-2: Student Learning Governance Policy

The E-2: Student Learning policy relates to identifying strategies to improve student learning. This policy is being removed because the active Focus 2024 strategic plan addresses this.

Click here to see an overview of the policy.

Click here to see more details about the policy.

Trustees Heard a Presentation on the CCSD Balanced Assessment System

The Balanced Assessment System Framework outlines both formative assessments (that take place during learning) and summative assessments to measure learning over time.

Next school year, CCSD will be implementing the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) MAP to measure growth of students in grades Kinder-9th in math, reading, and science. NWEA MAP is a nationally-normed growth assessment that measures what students know and informs what they’re ready to learn next.

Training  will be provided to educators to support the implementation of the MAP Growth Assessment.

The NWEA MAP assessment is also available in Spanish, which will be piloted next school year. There are also discussions underway to make the SAT assessment available in Spanish.

Click here to see the presentation.

Trustees Heard Legislative Updates

Trustees heard the following updates on legislation that CCSD is tracking:

  • CCSD Budget: Superintendent Jara has been in conversations with Governor Sisolak and Speaker Frierson about CCSD, the Governor’s office, and legislative leadership working in partnership.
  • Funding formula: Superintendent Jara expressed being encouraged by the work led by Senator Denis and Senator Woodhouse on the funding formula. The Governor’s office is seeking revenue sources across all agencies that can be reallocated to support education.
  • Fingerprinting (SB 185): This bill specifies that only the volunteers who will be unsupervised with students at schools are required to be fingerprinted.

Trustees Approved School Facility Name Changes

Trustees approved each of  the following name change requests:

  • Claude & Stella Parson Elementary School changed to Claude H. and Stella M. Parson
  • The 200s Hall at Lied STEM Academy changed to The Builder’s Hall by Nevada’s Contractors
  • The Library at Shelley Berkley Elementary School was named The George Levine Memorial Library

Trustees Discussed Updates to the School Naming Policy

Trustees discussed proposed updates to the school naming policy, including revised language around what could trigger the renaming of a school. Updates will also allow name change requests by elementary and middle schools whose names include a geographic reference or a historical figure.

Trustees provided feedback on the proposed policy that will be incorporated to the policy and brought back to the board for approval

Click here to see the policy (updates are on page 5).

Trustee Reports

Trustees reported on committee meetings, events, or activities they have attended since the last regular Board meeting:

  • Attended Vegas PBS’ interactive education tech experience at the Las Vegas Science & Technology Festival. Vegas PBS is also hosting a tech workshop on May 18th, and a job application assistance fair on May 24th for families.
  • Shared updates on the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Enrichment program, which has received positive feedback from staff and inmates.
  • Congratulated new speech language pathologists and teachers who graduated from Nevada State College.
  • Held community meeting to discuss bullying and racism issues at schools.
  • Attended Do the Write Thing program event, which had around 32 student participants.

Board and Superintendent Communication

Superintendent Jara acknowledged community and business partners for participating in Teacher Appreciation Week and commending CCSD teachers.

Potential Future Agenda Items:

  • Updates on Reclaim Your Future program
  • Presentation on Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Enrichment program
  • Request for information on the Legacy Project and the bond oversight process

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