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Clark County leaders draft wish list for school district breakup

A committee of two dozen community, education and political leaders soon will decide how best to carve the Clark County School District into smaller local precincts.

The committee meets Friday to debate its final list of recommendations on a plan to reorganize the nation’s fifth-largest school district before the 2018-19 academic year. Its recommendations, posted to the Nevada Legislature’s website late Monday, range from boosting teacher salaries and granting cities more of a say in education to increasing per-pupil state funding and supporting early childhood education.

Splitting the district into nearly two dozen precincts and allowing individual precincts to hire the superintendent also made the list.

John Vellardita, head of the local teachers union, recommended that a reorganization plan “transition the district to a model that enables individual schools to control at least 85 percent of their budget at the local school level.”

Other recommendations came from the mayors of Henderson and Las Vegas and representatives from business and rural communities in Clark County. Most of their proposals supported an “empowerment” model for all 357 schools in the district.

That model, which a main legislative panel granted its tentative approval in April, would strip power away from the district’s central administration and offer principals more control over their budget, curriculum and staffing decisions.

In exchange, schools will be held to higher levels of accountability.

“Properly vet highly qualified school principals before they are placed in each school and provided with greater control and latitude in developing the budgets and curricula of their schools,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman wrote in her recommendations.

In Henderson, residents have long clamored to break away from the district.

Henderson mayor Andy Hafen recommended cities and townships have the option to create “education councils that give parents and the community a greater voice in public education.”

The councils would provide or “augment” training for principals, parents and community members who would serve on a separate panel overseeing decisions at each school.

Representing Moapa Valley and Sandy Valley, former Moapa Valley High School principal Larry Moses recommended expanding the Clark County School Board from seven members to nine or 11 members. His recommendation would require that at least one trustee directly represent the rural communities.

“Establish a single precinct for each outlying area with a locally-elected, five-member precinct board that hires an at-will precinct administrator,” Moses wrote.

“Vest the authority to hire school principals in the precinct administrator to assure loyalty to the schools and community and not central administration,” he added.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky recommended the reorganization plan clearly outline the duties and membership of the empowerment team at each school, an appeals process to challenge the team’s decisions, and required meetings to review the school’s plan and budget.

He also raised important hurdles the main legislative panel must clear before finalizing its plan by a Jan. 1 deadline.

“Study changes to be made to attendance zones, assignments to schools, magnet schools, (career and technical education) schools, select school programs and federally mandated programs to ensure equitable funding (and) equitable access and opportunity for all students,” Skorkowsky wrote.

Supporters of the empowerment model — the brainchild of a longtime Canadian educator — argue it will increase student achievement and cut costs.

Michael Strembitsky, the former superintendent of Edmonton Public Schools in Alberta, Canada, will share with lawmakers Thursday a progress report on his plan to roll out the empowerment model to all 357 schools in the district.

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find @nealtmorton on Twitter.

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