Tag: Safety

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 8/9/18

Posted on by adlavadev

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.

Thursday, August 9, 2018 
Interim Legislative Committee on Education

The committee decided on Bill Draft Requests (BDR’s) that they will propose for the 2019 legislative session. A BDR is the first step in getting a bill heard during the legislative session, with the ultimate goal to get signed into law.

During this work session, the committee supported the proposals listed below. The item numbers in parenthesis correspond to the items in the work session document.


THE STUDY OF NEVADA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM (item 1)

  • Create a long-term stakeholder group to develop a statewide vision and comprehensive system of education.


FUNDING (item 3)

  • Develop an Equity Allocation Model (details to implement have not been finalized).


EDUCATIONAL PERSONNEL (items 12, 13, 14, 18, 18, 19)

  • Include Alternative Route to Licensure (ARL) for school building staff; expedite teacher licensure for military spouses; use of military training as credit towards trade licenses for veterans to qualify for jobs with school districts.
  • Clarify teacher licensure renewal, student teaching requirements, and exploration of a tiered structure for teacher licenses.


STUDENT HEALTH & SAFETY (items 21,22)

  • Improve data collection and reporting and increase level of detail reported for student discipline incidents across the state.


MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS (31, 33, 34, 35)

  • Expand the definition of English Mastery to include students who are least proficient in english (but not second-language learners); extend the term of the English Mastery Council to further study learning English in the state.
  • Allow charter school authorizers discretion to determine the term of renewal contracts.
  • Increase school districts’ flexibility to award credits for diplomas for homeless and foster youth.

Thursday, August 9, 2018 
CCSD Board of Trustees Meeting

The board approved the gender diverse policy in a 4-3 vote. The policy defines terms like Gender Expression and Gender Identity, and establishes a Gender Support Team. Gender Support teams are created when a child identifies as being gender diverse. The Team is responsible for designing a plan to address the rights and needs of students with diverse gender identities or expressions.

This policy also codifies additional rights of gender diverse students, such using the students preferred name and gender in all unofficial school documents, and allowing students to wear uniforms that correspond with their gender expression.

 

Supporters of the policy discussed the policy’s alignment to nationally recognized models. Washoe County School District enacted a similar policy in 2015. Opponents of the policy argued that it is a violation of the rights of students whose gender identity and expression are consistent with that assigned at birth, and had concerns of transparency around the policy itself.

 

Click here to read the policy.
Click here to see the agenda or watch the meeting.

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