Nevada Ed-Watch 5/14/20

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 14, 2020

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 submitted comments online. Public comment was not read into the record, and rather a summary of comments was provided to Trustees. Click here to see public comment submissions. 

Consent Agenda Highlights: 

Trustees Approved a Resolution to Advocate for Federal Funding for Public Schools 

The resolution is in conjunction with The Council of the Great City Schools. It asks for $200 billion in federal relief for public schools nationwide to mitigate learning loss caused by COVID-19 closures, and to accelerate student outcomes.

Click here to see the resolution.

Trustees Heard a Presentation about Improving CCSD’s Special Education

The Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) worked with CCSD to assess Special Education in the district. A report was developed that outlines opportunities to improve outcomes for students receiving special education services. The report includes data such as: 

  • In the 2018-2019 school year, 9.8% of students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) were on grade level in math, and 12.5% were on grade level in reading. 
  • The graduation rate for students with IEPs is 68%, compared to 85% for students that do not have IEPs.
  • Black students with IEPs are 3.39 times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than other students with IEPs.   

The report outlines the following 10 focus areas for the district to improve outcomes for students receiving special education services:

  1. Multi Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) 
  2. Referral/eligibility data and determination practice to address overrepresentation of student subgroups receiving special education services (Black, Hispanic, those who are eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch, and English Language learners)
  3. The use of achievement, education environments, graduation, suspension, and absenteeism data to address disparities between local data and national data 
  4. Academic instruction and positive behavior support for students with disabilities 
  5. Parent support and engagement
  6. Interdepartmental collaboration within the district
  7. Student Support Division operational structure and regional alignment 
  8. School-based special education administration instruction and service support 
  9. Compliance, transportation, and fiscal management and accountability 
  10. Internal project management

Trustees and CGCS discussed challenges to improving outcomes for students with disabilities– including overcrowded classrooms, lack of strong Tier 1 instruction across the district, and lack of professional development to build the capacity of educators. 

Click here to see the presentation.

Click here to see the report.

Trustees Heard Updates on CCSD’s Human Capital Management System (HCMS) 

To address major payroll issues with its HCMS system, CCSD brought in a consultant to identify and resolve the issues. CCSD was able to recover $700,000 in continued support from the consultant company that built the system. 80% of necessary fixes have been implemented. 

Trustees requested a follow up presentation when all issues have been identified and addressed.

Click here to see the presentation.

Superintendent’s Report 

Report Highlights:

  • Superintendent Jara announced new principals: Andrea Hill (John Dooley Elementary) and Jaime Witte (Sue H. Morrow Elementary).
  • Regarding COVID-19 closures, a final decision on graduations will occur during phase 2 of the Governor’s reopening plan. All plans will follow the governor’s orders and the district will maintain social distancing protocols. 

Requests for Future Agenda Items:

  • Information about policies related to Librarians in schools  
  • Information about the selection criteria for forming the Reopening of Schools Committee, and ongoing updates 
  • Updates on work related to the Special Education Report developed by The Council of the Great City Schools

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Nevada Ed-Watch 4/16/20

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, April 16, 2020

Clark County School District Board of Trustees Emergency Meeting

Click here to see the meeting agenda & Addendum

What happened at this meeting?

Public Comment

Members of the public submitted testimony online regarding:

  • Concerns about the safety of students and faculty due to coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Concerns about salaries and health benefits for substitute teachers 
  • Concerns about the impact of COVID-19 closures on employee compensation
  • Support for closing schools through the rest of the school year 
  • Concerns about the transition to distance education 

Consent Agenda Highlights: 

Trustees Denied the Extension of Emergency Authority for the Superintendent (5-0-2)

At the March 23rd board meeting, trustees  approved a limited Grant of Authority permitting Superintendent Jara to approve contracts and purchase items that are essential to the operation of the District during COVID-19 school closures. This request would extend the emergency Grant of Authority through April 30th. Two trustees abstained from the vote, and five trustees voted against the extension. 

Click here to see the resolution.

Click here to read about this in The Nevada Independent.

Trustees Heard Updates about the District’s Response to COVID-19

Presentation Highlights: 

  • CCSD has implemented three different modalities for students to engage in distance education: online learning, paper work packets that can be accessed at food distribution sites, and educational TV programming through Vegas PBS. During the week of March 30th, 258,361 students were engaged in some form of distance learning. There are about 325,000 students enrolled in CCSD schools. 
  • CCSD is encouraging parents to reach out to their child’s school counselor for resources on how to talk to their kids about COVID-19. 
  • CCSD is implementing two-way communication between teachers and families to track attendance. Parents who have not heard from their school are encouraged to call the school. 
  • 55,000 Chromebooks have been deployed to middle and high school students. 145,000 additional Chromebooks are in the process of being distributed to elementary school students. 
  • Considerations for the upcoming school year include exploring opportunities for summer learning, as well as  front-loading quarter 4 academic content to the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. District staff are also developing a balanced assessment system for the upcoming school year, and considering administering MAP Growth assessments (grades 3-8) to measure academic progress. 

Click here to see the presentation.

Trustees Approved Collective Bargaining Agreements

Trustees approved agreements with the Education Support Employees Association (ESEA) and the Clark County Educators Association (CCEA) that temporarily allows employees to “donate” unused sick leave to other employees impacted by COVID-19. Additionally, Trustees approved additional pay for ESEA support staff who worked during the first week of closures (3/15/20 through 3/21/20). Additional pay will also be extended to employees that volunteered to work during closures and those who are actively serving the public, such as food service and custodial workers. The total cost of these agreements is $800,000.00.

Click here to see the ESEA additional pay agreement.

Click here to see the ESEA sick leave agreement.

Click here to see the CCEA sick leave agreement.

Superintendent Communications

Superintendent Jara has met with high school seniors, and is scheduled to meet with high school principals to make a determination about graduation for the class of 2020.  The district will continue to provide information with families regarding any action taken in response to the coronavirus. 


Requests for Future Agenda Items:

  • A memo that outlines the financial impact of COVID-19 on the district.

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