City proposal would create new education department

Las Vegas doesn't have a direct role in education funding or governance, but it could soon have a whole department dedicated to influencing those who do run local schools.

City Council members on Wednesday introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would create a new 20-member department designed to manage 10 existing programs, services and partnerships crafted in conjunction with state and local education leaders.

Staffers with the proposed Department of Youth Development and Social Innovation would be tasked with researching best practices and promoting education reforms, all with the goal of "gaining valuable access to premiere institutions, expertise, and local, state and national networks."

Plans for the department — outlined in a six-page report authored by City Manager Betsy Fretwell — leave open the possibility of hiring a "principal policy analyst" to help steer the new department, one that officials said would be largely comprised of employees reassigned from the city's Office of Community Services.

Ordinance sponsor and Mayor Carolyn Goodman, founder of the Meadows School and longtime advocate for expanding the city's role in K-12 education, said an as-yet-unnamed staffer would be paid $152,000 a year to run the new department.

The two-term mayor left plenty of fingerprints on the ordinance ahead of its introduction, but was not in attendance to see it forwarded for consideration at a City Council Recommending Committee meeting on Dec. 14.

Reached for comment Tuesday, Goodman said she hadn't calibrated council members' comfort with the move.

Nor did she seek state and local education officials' approval for the effort, one she said did not overstep the city's jurisdictional bounds.

"We're not the school district," Goodman said, referring to the Clark County School District. "We work before school hours and after, providing food and wraparound services and tutoring.

"We're trying to work with families to get them more involved in students' lives. ... This is where the city is helping."

Goodman declined to comment on which education reforms the agency might look to promote, beyond noting that "the earlier we offer opportunities to each child, the better."

City Manager Fretwell characterized Wednesday's proposal as a "reorganization" that would not immediately result in additional hires or new costs for the city.

The city plans to spend around $6 million annually on the newly proposed department, including around $3.6 million for pre- and after-school programs. Fretwell said she was still seeking estimates of the total that Las Vegas spends on existing education initiatives.

The city faced criticism over November's hiring of an executive to head one such effort.

Michelle Layton, a former promotions director for KLAS-TV, Channel 8, is now paid $75,000 annually to run Downtown Achieves, a city-funded organization which partners with Southern Nevada businesses, governments and nonprofit agencies dedicated to "ensuring academic success" for 12,500 children attending 11 schools in downtown Las Vegas.

At the time of Layton's hiring, a city spokeswoman said Las Vegas had spent $200,000 on Downtown Achieves since its founding in 2013.

That's in addition to $97,500 City Council members approved in 2013 to help prop up unfunded teaching positions at downtown schools.

Las Vegas leaders could vote to approve the new department, and name its director, as soon as Jan. 6.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven