74°F
weather icon Windy

CCSD Trustee Kevin Child denies wrongdoing during school visits

Clark County School District D Trustee Kevin Child denied accusations against him about inappropriate conduct and disruptions at schools, two days after Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky issued guidelines that restricts Child’s interactions with schools and staff.

“At no time have I engaged in any inappropriate conduct or made ‘gestures’ toward school administrators, teachers or students during my visits to schools in my district,” he said Wednesday in a statement to the Review-Journal. “The allegations are difficult to address as I have not been provided copies of any of the alleged complaints.”

Child said he tried to speak with the district’s legal counsel, Carlos McDade, but was informed McDade couldn’t speak to him “due to some unnamed conflict of interest.”

He called the complaints unfounded, secret and undisclosed.

“I have asked for copies of these complaints, but I have been told they cannot be released,” he said. “I am exploring my legal options and remedies.”

The guidelines issued to district staff state that Child must receive a written invitation to visit a school, unless he’s there to attend a public function.

Child also needs a “specific written invitation” to enter the district’s administrative offices. If meeting with staff members for official district business, Child must schedule the meeting in the Board of School Trustees office.

The district has not provided any details or reasons for why Child has been barred, only stating that Nevada law allows principals and administrators to restrict access to their buildings.

But Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita said the union has heard numerous complaints about Child, including classroom disruptions and “inappropriate unprofessional gestures” to employees.

Stephen Augspurger, the executive director of the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees, claimed that Child once threatened him over the union’s support for the district reorganization mandate known as AB394.

“He said, ‘Steve, I am so mad at you, I’m going to kick your ass,’” Augspurger told the trustees during a board meeting in August.

That claim is documented as a threat of “physical violence” in a labor relations complaint that the administrators union has filed with the Employee-Management Relations Board.

Child said he had not heard of any complaints about visiting schools until he questioned the fashion in which the district’s mandated reorganization was being implemented.

“Now, Mr. Vellardita, Mr. Augspurger and apparently Superintendent Skorkowsky have taken public action against me in an attempt to discredit me in the view of the people who lawfully elected me to serve as a Trustee to CCSD,” Child said in his statement.

Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at 702-383-4630 or apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AmeliaPakHarvey on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST