LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Members of the Clark County Education Association, Nevada’s largest teachers’ union, are leading the call for a nationwide search for the new leader of the Clark County School District.
Members of the union demonstrated that desire outside CCSD’s headquarters ahead of Wednesday night’s Board of Trustees meeting.
“We just want to bring information to the public so they understand that we need to have a national search for a new superintendent,” CCEA executive board member Elizabeth Adler told FOX5 outside the building. “It’s something we deserve for the employees. The students deserve it, the community deserves it.”
Union members continued that push inside the building.
“I’m here to urge you to please do a nationwide search,” Jessica Jones said to the board to begin her two minutes of public comment on the issue.
More than a dozen teachers and parents talked during the public comment section of the meeting.
“You need an executive that has experience in a large organization,” CCEA Vice President Jim Frazee said to the board. “And that’s not to be found currently.”
Some board members mentioned they’re fearful of a loss in culture in the event of a new superintendent coming in from out of state.
“It could possibly lead to the most experienced staff transitioning out, which will cause significant institutional loss,” board member Lola Brooks said.
Frazee made it clear he does not see this as an issue.
“If the culture was coherent, competent and successful, then the loss would be mourned,” he said. “But no one can use those adjectives and CCSD in the same sentence for the last six years.”
Although the majority of public comment supported a nationwide search, there were dissenting opinions.
“We need someone who understands our culture, our climate, our cities, our state,” one local parent said. “It’s silly to automatically assume we won’t find this locally.”
Board president Evelyn Garcia Morales seemed to be leaning away from a national search, citing cost and time benefits, considering the board wants to have a new superintendent in place by the start of next school year.
“In order to get this work going, we would benefit from a state and local search just simply because of timing,” she opined.
There was consensus among the board and public commenters on getting plenty of community feedback, and on hiring a search firm that will use that feedback in the search. The board unanimously passed a motion to set up that search firm.
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