What will the CCSD election results mean for its embattled board?
Two challengers and one incumbent will be sworn in to serve on the Clark County School Board in January after the county certified the results of the general election on Friday.
The race to represent Clark County on its school board is typically considered a “down ballot” race that voters are less likely to vote in, compared with more high-profile races such as the ones for governor or U.S. Senate.
But this year, education advocate and UNLV law professor Sylvia Lazos says more people than ever are paying attention to what’s happening with the state’s largest school district and largest employer.
“Even my hairdresser has an opinion on the school district. She doesn’t even have kids in the school district,” Lazos said. “There’s no place that I go where people congregate where people aren’t fuming.”
After Clark County voters rejected two current trustees in the races for three open seats on the board, it remains to be seen whether the new board will continue to be divided along the 4-3 margin that has decided many major votes in the district over the last year, including the firing and rehiring of Superintendent Jesus Jara.
Three board seats were up for re-election on Nov. 8, with Trustees Irene Cepeda and Danielle Ford losing their seats to challengers Brenda Zamora and Irene Bustamante Adams. Trustee Linda Cavazos was the only incumbent to defend her seat successfully — against challenger Greg Wieman.
The election came on the heels of a year in which board members had to contend with heightened concerns about school safety, teacher shortages and the educational performance of students who are coming off of a year of distance learning during the pandemic.
“These races have tended to be very low-interest races,” Lazos said. “I think that that’s one thing to look at in terms of, finally, our community is paying attention.”
Changing the dynamic
The School Board adopts policies and sets the agenda of the district — the fifth-largest in the country — in areas like budget and student performance, while also communicating its priorities to the superintendent, its lone employee.
But the board has made headlines over the last year for allegations of dysfunction and a hostile work environment, particularly over its decision to fire and rehire Jara.
Board members have frequently erupted into arguments at meetings. This summer, when students from Centennial High School came to a meeting to ask that their principal be reinstated, student Zachary Schaumburg expressed surprise at the unprofessional behavior exhibited by board members.
“We are literal high schoolers …” Schaumburg told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We were professional … more than grown adults sitting on the stage. I would be embarrassed if I were them.”
Ahead of the election, Cavazos questioned whether the board could get back to a place where it was one cohesive board working toward common goals.
On Thursday, she said she was hopeful for the future direction of the board, acknowledging the differences in age, experience and perspective of the two trustee-elects.
Zamora, a progressive activist and organizer with voting advocacy group Silver State Voices, is a millennial mother with children in the district, while Bustamante Adams is a former state assemblywoman and deputy director of a workforce development board on which Jara sits.
“Whenever you have a new member come into the group, it changes the dynamic,” Cavazos said. “I’m very curious and a little bit excited to see where they’re both coming from.”
Zamora — who ran on a slate with Ford and Cavazos — said Friday that she was full of hope heading into her first term on the board. While education advocates may feel frustration over the way votes have gone in the district over the last few years, everyday voters who are less plugged into the goings-on in the district simply expressed frustration about feeling unheard.
Zamora, who ran on a platform of improving communication between the district and families, said she wants to communicate that as a mother of students, she is here to listen to the community and work to find solutions.
“This is where I feel like I can come in and make a difference, because I am an organizer at heart,” she said.
But Ford, who has been the loudest critic of Jara on the board over the past year, said Thursday she was disappointed that the board was so close to an opportunity to be able to flip the balance of power on the board.
Ford said she is trying to keep a positive outlook and not immediately expect failure when it comes to the board’s dynamic moving forward. But she said she doesn’t have hope that the district will go in the positive direction she was imagining because of Bustamante Adams’ working relationship with the superintendent.
“I’m hoping that she joins the board and she sees how we’re governing and she sees how insanely limited they’ve made us over the past few years,” Ford said. “I know that she will hear some plans that Dr. Jara has coming in January for our staff, and I hope that she realizes that she’s going to be the deciding vote on that, and I hope she tells Dr. Jara no.”
Bustamante Adams said her reputation in the Legislature was one of a well-rounded, data-driven lawmaker that takes in all information before making a decision, even if it was not the popular vote.
“I’ve done my homework, and that’s the kind of reputation I have,” she said.
Bustamante Adams said she hopes to build relationships with her fellow trustees and ensure that administrators, teachers and everyone in the school and business community can be engaged at the table where decisions are made.
Lazos said the 4-3 split on the board has been a hard division, and key personalities have not worked on communication or to be more open-minded about issues.
Moving forward, she said she hopes that the board will focus on the children in the district and not on personalities.
“We have new members on the board, so there really is an opportunity to start new relationships and really think about building an agenda that focuses on children,” she said.
‘We’re going to lose this generation’
Lazos also called attention to endorsements and the role they may have played in this year’s School Board race, noting that voters may have had difficulty discerning whom to vote for beyond the chaos and infighting that have dominated headlines.
But endorsements from the Clark County Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, did not prove to be enough to elect two of its candidates: incumbent Cepeda and newcomer Wieman, a former Eureka County school superintendent.
The union did endorse Bustamante Adams, who won her race by the closest margin, 3,866 votes, while also raising the most money for her campaign out of all six candidates.
John Vellardita, the union’s executive director, said Bustamante Adams would bring a measure of experience and skill that the board needs, in addition to her experience working with the Legislature, which the union views as an important priority for the board heading into the next legislative session.
Ultimately, Vellardita said the union didn’t think the results of the election would change the student-focused direction that the board had been heading in the last year.
The board majority would continue to be focused on improving student education and understanding the importance of being involved in the upcoming legislative session to advocate for students and staff, he said.
But for Lazos, what is ultimately at stake is the well-being of the district’s students, who are still grappling with learning loss and challenges they experienced in the wake of a year of distance learning and missing out on key social and educational milestones during the pandemic.
“If we don’t refocus and revamp and take a new direction, we’re going to lose this generation,” she said. “In my mind, there’s no doubt about that.”
Contact Lorraine Longhi at 702-387-5298 or llonghi@reviewjournal.com. Follow her at @lolonghi on Twitter.