Clark County school superintendent finalist Eva White

Eva White says she never meant to leave Clark County for good. She always planned to come home.

White, who retired as the Clark County School District’s interim chief financial officer in August, said she expected to return to her native state of Minnesota for two years so she could qualify for retirement benefits there.

But the district’s ongoing reorganization prompted her to apply for the superintendency ahead of her planned return, she said.

“There are changes that we’re undergoing at CCSD that I kind of feel like I was born to assist with,” White said.

The core concept of the reorganization — school empowerment with a hyper-local focus on children’s needs — is dear to White’s heart. She helped launch the district’s strategic budgets, the budgeting tool that’s a key part of the reorganization.

To make the effort work, White believes in meticulously documenting where dollars are spent. Only then, she said, can the district lobby the state for adequate funding.

“Until they believe that we have not lied, not hidden, not done whatever, they’re never going to give us the money that we need,” White said.

White also grappled with the district’s overall finances while serving as CFO for six months, before leaving around the time the district announced what eventually became a $60 million budget deficit.

Before the shortfall, she said, she argued with the state over the amount of full-day kindergarten money the district was supposed to receive.

The state ultimately gave the district $11 million more for kindergarten than it received — in part because of an error in how the funding was dispensed.

In Minnesota’s Sauk Rapids-Rice district, White helped launch its first standalone human resources department, said interim Superintendent Bruce Watkins.

“She brought such a veteran point of view and such a wealth of experience that it’s been a great value and a benefit to our district,” Watkins said.

As an internal candidate, White must shake the perception that she’ll support the status quo.

She confirmed that she lent her cabin in Utah to Board President Deanna Wright years ago, but said she’d be disappointed if the board made a decision based on who had a cabin.

Wright said in a text message that she used her cabin one time five years ago, but she’s just as close with White as she is with finalist Mike Barton.

Though some might criticize her decision to leave Clark County, White notes that she’d be forgoing her Minnesota retirement pay if she took the job. Her current Nevada retirement pay would be frozen if she’s chosen as superintendent.

“If I can help bring people together, if I can help organize systems statewide so that all of us are working together for the right purpose, if people can start to trust us as a district, it will be worth the retirement I gave up,” she said.

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