EDITORIAL: Initiating CCSD breakup

The Clark County School District, the country's fifth-largest public education system, has long been too big to adequately address its shortcomings. The size of the school district and the large number of administrators who've spent their entire careers with the system have contributed greatly to parent and taxpayer frustration with the bureaucracy and a resulting lack of confidence in its ability to change course.

That's why this summer, as part of a sweeping education reform agenda that included school choice and increased funding for specific school programs, state lawmakers started the process of breaking up the school district to achieve more localized control.

Not surprisingly, the school district didn't want to be split up or have its centralized authority diminished. Lawmakers wisely moved ahead anyway, and Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the bill into law.

So when the advisory committee that will lead the deconsolidation met for the first time last week, it was fascinating to see its work begin with a reorganization plan from … the school district itself.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky pitched a plan that he said could be implemented starting this month and be in place by the start of next school year. It was an ambitious idea, considering the nine-member committee has more than two years to develop a breakup plan.

Mr. Skorkowsky's proposal would create seven precincts with the same boundaries as those of School Board districts. Each precinct would have its own executive with authority over instruction and layers of advisory councils to receive and provide public input, although many central operations would be retained.

Is the school district trying to get out in front of a change it really doesn't want? It sure looks like it.

Fortunately, the committee members had plenty of questions and concerns for Mr. Skorkowsky, from the economic and racial imbalances in existing trustee districts to whether his proposal merely adds new layers of bureaucracy.

The scrutiny was a good sign for the committee and its mission. Although the school district must be involved in planning and executing its breakup, it mustn't be allowed to lead the process, because its interest in self-preservation is too great. That would defeat the purpose of deconsolidation in the first place. The committee must drive this bus.