Appointee loses spot on School Board; Cranor wins re-election bid

Voters didn’t agree with the Clark County School Board on its pick to replace the former District D trustee.

Constituents voted out appointee Stavan Corbett, who resigned from the Nevada State Board of Education in December 2013 to finish Lorraine Alder­man’s term and was seeking his own four-year term beginning next year.

Instead, real estate agent Kevin Child will represent the 49,000 students of south-central Las Vegas and part of North Las Vegas east of Interstate 15. Child garnered 52 percent of the votes with all precincts reporting.

While many may be surprised that the newcomer defeated Corbett, a longtime education advocate and familiar face, Child said Tuesday that “it’s another referendum.

“I want more out of our system,” said Child, who will join the seven-member board that oversees the nation’s fifth-largest school district and its $2 billion budget. “I want more and I know we can get it.”

Child has demanded more transparency from the district, recently criticized for trying to make sex education curriculum changes without broad public input, and said he won’t ask taxpayers for another dime until the district curbs its current spending.

Corbett’s departure means the board loses its only Hispanic member in a district where 44 percent of students are Hispanic. The rest of the board consists of five Caucasian women and one African-American woman.

A board member’s race shouldn’t be the issue though, Child said Tuesday evening.

“I don’t see color. I see kids,” he said.

Many had questioned whether an upset would occur in the District G School Board race. But embattled School Board President Erin Cranor won her first bid for re-election Tuesday despite controversies that plagued her campaign in the lead up to voting.

Cranor earned 53 percent of the vote.

Her opponent and political newcomer, Joe Spencer, capitalized on the turmoil surrounding Cranor in October after the Clark County School District wrote and signed Cranor’s name to a $100,000 settlement check that freed her from a lawsuit — which threatened her personal assets — without required board approval. Spencer called for her immediate resignation and withdrawal from the race in October. He then filed an ethics complaint against Cranor for the same reason.

During the debate over the secretly paid settlement, Cranor has stayed silent, refusing all media requests and only responding in writing that Spencer was “misinformed about what occurred.”

Cranor broke that silence Tuesday when re-elected.

“I’m thankful to our community for an opportunity to continue serving,” said Cranor, acknowledging that the recent controversies had an effect on her campaign. “It felt like we just needed to work harder and harder.”

Incumbent Carolyn Edwards won her re-election by a wide margin on Tuesday to represent District F in the southwest valley.

She’s returning for the maximum third term allowed by state law and earned 63 percent of the votes.