Time for Clark County School District to look at an oustide candidate for superintendent

So here we are again, at the crossroads of getting ready to pick a new superintendent and considering whether to choose from within the organization or from the outside.

Time and again, we have chosen from within. But our track record of choosing a person from within who we believed could make the material improvements necessary for this district to be taken seriously have continued to fall short again and again. I believe it is at least in part because those selected know no other program and, therefore, inherently continue to incorporate too many of the systemic problems within the system. Or they continue to bow down to the various internal forces that they’ve known for years — the “go along to get along” approach that has yielded little success in improving our status.

Opponents of choosing from the outside appear not to want to “rock the boat,” when in fact that’s exactly what we need. Former Superintendent Dwight Jones tried to do that and had every kind of roadblock thrown in front of him — I know, because I saw much of that firsthand.

Whether it’s an entirely new model or dramatic changes brought about from an “outside the box” thinker, Las Vegans need to decide whether it’s time to get serious about improving our K-12 education system or to continue to wallow in the trough of being one of the worst education systems in the nation.

Finally, to those who complain about the cost of sourcing a potentially new superintendent, many of you are proponents of teacher salary increases. Don’t you think it’s just as important (if not more) to spend a little money to find the right person to lead the entire organization? If your answer is “no,” then I’ll file you under those who want us to continue to wallow in our trough.