STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 3

A retired day care operator who owes the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and a candidate who served on a California school board face each other in the District 3 race for the Nevada Board of Education.

Candidate Willa Chaney's former firm, Smart Start Child Care Center, owes the Nevada Department of Education, $528,373 plus interest, according to an Aug. 30 District Court decision.

Chaney, a 66-year-old former day care owner-operator, said she is not a revenge-motivated candidate since losing a lawsuit to the Department of Education over misappropriated funds.

"I'm not that kind of a person," said Chaney, who would resign as president of Smart Start if elected to the state Board of Education and would recuse herself from voting on matters that would present conflicts of interest.

Chaney, who is appealing the court decision, said the dispute is over the federal reimbursement dollars she received to feed low-income children. Chaney said she was "harassed " by a state monitor watching the expenditure of federal funds and said her legal problems began after she filed a complaint against the monitor.

Her opponent, Doris Wallace, 60, Fletcher, is portraying herself as "the new kid on the block. I have no baggage."

Fletcher moved to Las Vegas three years ago from California, where she was on the Cucamonga Board of Education in the late 1990s. As a social worker, she organized foster children to lobby the California Legislature for better entitlement programs.

Fletcher, who also works as a substitute teacher, said she realized she had a better chance of winning District 3, an open seat on the Nevada Board of Education, rather than the District C seat on the Clark County School Board, in which candidates with "30 years of experience" are running.

"I did do a little research," Fletcher said. "I don't do anything half-cocked."

Chaney, the retired day care operator, said she preferred the Nevada Board of Education seat because it's a higher office.

"At the state level, you set the policy," she said. "At the district level, they carry out the policy."

Both candidates said they are committed to helping children.

"I'm running because I believe I can make a difference," Chaney said. "A lot of kids in my day care are now in school. A lot of them are falling through the cracks."

Because of her experience as a day care operator, Chaney said she "knows curriculum." She has an associate degree in early childhood education from the College of Southern Nevada.

Fletcher has a bachelor's degree in human services from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She is also proud of being a host "mom" for foreign exchange students from Brazil, China, Japan and Russia.

"I believe to be successful today you have to be well diversified," she said.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.