Nevada Ed Watch 1/23/20

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, January 23, 2020

Clark County School District Board of Trustees Meeting

Click here to see the meeting agenda

Click here to see the meeting agenda addendum

What happened at this meeting?

Public Comment

Members of the public provided testimony to Trustees regarding:

  • The value of school counselors and school psychologists in student and family success. 
  • Concerns that some CCSD employees will not be paid according to schedule because of an issue with the payroll system. 
  • Concerns about substitute teacher pay. 
  • Support for the Acceleration Academy Program. 

CCSD Chief Financial Officer Provided an Update on Employee Pay 

Due to an implementation error, some CCSD employees will not receive their scheduled pay for prep buyouts and additional duties such as night school. HCM, IT, and Payroll teams are working to resolve the issue and recommended that CCSD employees call the payroll department if they are affected. 

Consent Agenda Highlights: 

  • Agreement between The Elementary Fine Arts Department of the Curriculum and Professional Development Division and the Nevada School of the Arts (NSA) to develop guiding principles for the operation of the NSA Chorale.
  • Two settlements between the Clark County School District and anonymous parties that total $1.8 million.

Trustees Appoint a New Member to the Sex Education Advisory Committee 

Maggie Cox (District A) was appointed to serve as a new member of the Sex Education Advisory Committee. The purpose of the committee is to make recommendations to the Board regarding content and materials that are contained in sex education units.

Click here to see the Request for Appointment Approval and the committee bylaws.

Trustees Heard Updates on the Implementation of Internal Control Examination Report Findings 

CCSD Chief Financial Officer provided status updates on progress made towards addressing observations identified in the Internal Controls Examination Report performed by Eide Bailly. 

Updates include: 

  • A new district policy related to fraud, and a confidential hotline to report fraud. 
  • New policies related to the use of district vehicles. 
  • The development of policies for controls around school generated cash funds. 

Click here to see all updates presented.

Trustee Reports 

  • Recognition to Nevada State College for the groundbreaking of the Glenn and Ande Christensen School of Education Building  
  • Announcement that the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s Board of Control approved a new 5A sports division.
  • Recognition by the Henderson City Council of Liberty High School as state football champions. 
  • Trustees Wright and Young volunteered to be judges for the Annual Susan Brager Scholarship.

Superintendent Communications

  • The district hired a new Chief Information Officer, Greg Holopof 
  • Dr. Malich is transitioning out of the district to pursue a role with the City of Las Vegas. 
  • The Student Equity and Access Committee released a report with recommended focus areas to achieve equity and access in the Clark County School District. A Blue Ribbon Commission will be formed to continue this work. 

Requests for Future Agenda Items

There were no requests for agenda items during this meeting.


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Nevada Ed Watch 6/27/19

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 27, 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 regarding the decision to eliminate the dean position in the Clark County School District.

Trustees Unanimously Approved the Consent Agenda

Consent agenda highlights:

  • Approval of a settlement for $500K (click here to read about this in the Las Vegas Review-Journal). 
  • Grant applications and Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), including:
    • Immunize Nevada
    • NSHE participation in FAFSA
    • English Language Learner programs

Trustees Approved Members of the Sex Education Committee

The Sex Education Committee is charged with reviewing the content and materials to be used in units of instruction on the human reporductive system, STDs/STIs, and sexual responsibility. The committee also makes recommendations to the Superintendent, who then makes recommendations to Trustees. 

The approved committee members are:

  • Medicine/Nursing: Diane Elmore (District A)
  • Counseling: Laura Deitsch (District E)
  • Religion: Dr. S. S. Rogers (District C)
  • Teacher: Jessica Maleskey (District A)
  • Parents: 
    • Erin Bilbray Kohn (District F)
    • Jodi Thornley (District B)
    • Bonnie Pruneda (District B)
    • Stephanie Valdez (District E)
    • Stephanie Zinna (District G)
  • Pupil: Arianna Ophir (District E)

Trustees Heard Updates from the Superintendent

Superintendent Jara provided a presentation to Trustees about recent budget changes. In addition to the $17 million savings from the removal of the dean position– a total of $7.4 million dollars will be reduced from the 2019-2020 budget from the following departments:

  • College, Career, Equity and School Choice Office 
  • Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Unit 
  • Legal Services

Click here to see the presentation

Click here to read about this in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Alternative options (in lieu of cutting the dean positions) were to eliminate:

  • Magnet programs
  • Performing arts
  • Athletics and athletic transportation
  • Transportation for secondary schools
  • Transportation for all students except those who the district is federally required to transport  

Superintendent Jara also provided information on school safety initiatives that will take effect following the removal of all dean positions. Student safety efforts for the 2019-2020 school years include:

  • 4 new canine officers 
  • An additional Resource Office for all high schools
  • A reserve officer program
  • Two staff training programs: Trauma 101 and De-escalation 

Additionally, two new student support positions have been introduced:

  1. Student Success Project Facilitator 
  2. Student Success Coordinator

These positions will be posted on June 28th, and principals can begin interviewing on July 3rd.

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

The construction bids policy addresses 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

Board Approved Contract for COO and Chief of Staff

The new CCSD Chief Operating Officer is Michael Casey. Click here to see the contract. 

The new CCSD Chief of Staff is Christopher Bernier. Click here to see the contract.


Potential Future Agenda Items:

  • Feasibility of creating an Advisory Committee made up of in-school staff to advise the Superintendent.

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