Board leaves options open

A draft agenda for the School Board’s April 22 meeting proposes a discussion on the “selection, compensation and benefit considerations of individuals appointed to assume interim leadership of the (Clark County School) District.”

The language is similar to that of a board policy that covers appointing interim leadership in a crisis, when the duties of the superintendent may be split between the deputy superintendent of instruction, the deputy superintendent of student services, the chief financial officer and the chief human resources officer.

Those positions are now held, respectively, by Lauren Kohut-Rost, Charlene Green, Jeff Weiler and Martha Tittle.

While Rulffes’ contract doesn’t end until Aug. 30 and School Board members say there are no immediate plans to name an interim successor, some worry that the agenda item, which also will be included on future board meeting agendas, is an indication that district officials might be stacking the deck for a favored insider candidate.

That would be a mistake, said Ken Small, an architect who is running against School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards in District F.

Small said an early appointment would be “a desperate attempt to lock in the (Board of) Trustees’ failed management system before the voters can fix the problem.”

On Tuesday, School Board President Terri Janison stressed that the board has no immediate plans to appoint an interim superintendent. She also said that the board already has discussed retaining Rulffes after August, if necessary, to complete the superintendent search.

The School Board is simply making the selection of an interim superintendent a standing agenda item so it can select a new leader as needed, Janison said.

“It’s truly there is to cover every possible scenario,” Janison said.

Maggie McLetchie, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said that by having such a standing item, the School Board is “violating the spirit of the open meetings law.”

“To just throw it on there (the agenda) as a placeholder in case they decide they feel like talking about it doesn’t really give the public constructive notice,” McLetchie said. “The (public) really won’t know when it will be discussed.”

Previous boards have appointed senior staff to take over for an exiting superintendent. When Carlos Garcia resigned as superintendent in 2005, Rulffes, who was then chief financial officer, and Agustin Orci, former deputy superintendent of instruction, served as “co-interim superintendents.” The School Board gave the job to Rulffes in 2006.

Speculation about who the next superintendent will be is rampant in the district, which is facing the prospect of job cuts as it attempts to make up a deficit brought on by reduced state funding and declining property tax revenues.

Earlier this month, the School Board approved a tentative final budget for next year that still needs to be pared back by $30 million. A total of 1,077 employee positions are at stake if the district cannot find alternatives to job cuts to resolve the budget shortfall.

The public is volunteering input on who should take leadership of the troubled district. The School Board already has received a petition asking for the interim appointment of Jim Rogers, the former chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

School Board member Larry Mason said the notion that an interim superintendent already has been selected is “probably just a rumor, from the same people who are worried that Jim Rogers might be appointed. Stranger things have happened.”

Because Rogers owns KVBC-TV, Channel 3, where Janison’s husband, Kevin, works as a weatherman, Janison has said she would have to recuse herself from any decision to hire Rogers.

Rogers has said he is open to the idea of serving as interim superintendent at no cost to the district if he is needed.

But Small thinks the current School Board favors promoting a district insider because “they don’t want somebody new coming in and telling us (the public) what’s going on.”

On April 22, the board could discuss hiring a consultant or headhunter to coordinate a superintendent candidate search. As a private contractor, the headhunter would not be subject to the same open meeting law requirements that apply to the School Board.

Barry Smith, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, said, “Unfortunately some public bodies have used consultants to get around what I think is their obligation to do this in public. … To me, this is perhaps the most important job a School Board or a county commission does, hire a manager to run things day to day. It’s certainly of high interest to the taxpayers and the voters.”

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.