COMMENTARY: Search for new Clark County School District leader should focus on these 10 traits

Pat Skorkowsky, the superintendent of the Clark County School District, announced his retirement in September, and the search for his replacement is underway. With the district involved in a decentralization effort, there will be many people in the community with strong opinions on what type of superintendent we need to be successful.

My organization represents approximately 18,000 licensed professional educators. We believe that it is crucial for the School Board to develop a comprehensive candidate profile that grounds any recruiting firm in its efforts to find the absolute right candidate, taking into consideration the opinions of educators in the process. It is imperative that the new superintendent be a highly qualified and experienced leader. But the new leader should also possess the following critical characteristics to lead the district forward:

■ Support the empowerment model and new decentralized school district to ensure Assembly Bill 469 is successfully implemented with positive student outcomes. Anyone coming in must appropriately implement the law with an articulate understanding of how exactly the new model supports student outcomes.

■ Be a strong advocate for effective School Board leadership, ensuring that trustees are supported, trained and fully informed to be effective decision- makers. In part, the role of a superintendent is to provide the support, resources and understanding to trustees so they can be effective leaders of our district.

■ Be a strategic planner who will implement five- and 10-year plans for growth in student achievement with accountability systems that measure progress with a background in achieving successful student outcomes. There is no get-rich scheme when it comes to a child’s education. The north star of any superintendent must be strategic plans that demonstrate measurable results in student achievements.

■ Have a strong financial background committed to bringing financial capacity to the district to ensure that there is the responsible fiscal management of resources with accountability systems and measurable outcomes.

■ Act as an advocate for adequate funding for the district where money follows the students into the classroom to ensure student achievement and growth. The ability to prioritize funding to where it impacts students is critical.

■ Be a leader who can improve the school climate and relations with educators and administrators to ensure that every school district-wide has cohesive collaboration. The district is about investing in human capital, and we need leaders who know the value and how that is reflected in the classroom for Nevada students.

■ Have extensive experience with large urban school districts that have a high poverty and English language learner student population. The Clark County School District has challenges that are unique and on a scale that exists nowhere else in the state and rarely across the country. We need strong leadership that matches those challenges.

■ Serve as an effective advocate for sound education policy and legislation at the state level who continues to push for education reforms that are anchored in achievement results and high systems of accountability and transparency. Clark County students need a strong voice in Carson City who can clearly advocate for the unique challenges our school system faces.

■ Be a strong advocate for parental engagement and empowerment at every school throughout the district, recognizing that parents play an integral role in supporting a student’s education. With the district reorganization, parents have an opportunity to have more control over their children’s education.

■ Partner with the business community to ensure that there is a college, career and technical ready workforce to help grow and diversify Nevada’s economy. Key business leaders have stepped up and supported public education and our schools. They are important partners moving forward in improving our school system. We need a leader who grows and fosters these key relationships.

The community needs to have a voice in the type of leadership our school district needs, and adopting guidelines for a candidate profile has to be done within the context of the change the district is undergoing. We are the fifth-largest school district in the nation.

We have both a high population of English language learners and students living in poverty, as well as high-performing magnet schools and career and technical schools that need more investment.

Unfortunately, we also have fiscal challenges, so every dollar we receive must be prioritized to ensure it has the most impact on student outcomes — revenue with accountability.

Finally, by law, we have a new decentralized system that has empowered parents, teachers and administrators to have more control over the educational needs of their students.

We need a leader who embraces this new system, recognizes the unique challenges our district faces, exhibits the leadership to build bridges that bring people together and has the expertise to lead our district forward. Those leaders are out there. We need to go find them. Our community and our students deserve nothing short of that.

John Vellardita is executive director of the Clark County Education Association.