LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – On Wednesday, the Clark County School District Board of School Trustees met to discuss specific elements of selecting a search firm to help find CCSD’s next permanent Superintendent.
A Request for Proposal (RFP) was the lead item on the board’s agenda, and President Evelyn Garcia Morales explained that the board would discuss a timeline for the selection of a search firm, noting the “necessity of special meetings” as part of the process. She added that the RFP would be a “mirror of the 2017 document” that led to the hiring of recently-departed Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara.
She said that the board will review and modify that RFP before beginning to interview search firm candidates. Eventually, the board plans to rank search firm applications and narrow those down to 2-3 possibilities before making a final selection. She also noted that CCSD is just beginning to look at search firms and has had no discussions yet regarding specific candidates.
A public comment section of the meeting featured input from teachers and other community stakeholders. One CCSD kindergarten teacher called community input the “most important part” of the process. She also cited the need for meetings outside of normal work hours so that teachers and other interested parties may participate.
A Liberty High School teacher noted his excitement about the process while addressing the “faith lost in the current administration.” He said the district’s “iron-fisted, top-down approach” to curriculum has brought some teachers to tears.
A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce cited the need for a firm with “a proven track record and success in conducting a national search,” while a representative from the Retail Association of Nevada said that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to focus on a search firm specializing in educational leadership due to the massive size of CCSD.
“You are a logistics company that is providing educational services,” he said, saying that the district ultimately needs “a leader to tie all those departments together.”
The board set a tentative target date of November 1 as a potential start date for the new Superintendent.
In a separate agenda item, the board also unanimously approved a motion to enter into contract negotiations with interim Superintendent Dr. Brenda Larsen-Mitchell. Once she and the district’s counsel agree to terms on a tentative contract, that will come back to the board for a public vote.
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