Initial leaders chosen to oversee breakup of Clark County School District
Lawmakers have appointed the first round of community leaders charged with figuring out how to break up the Clark County School District.
At a meeting of the Legislative Commission on Monday, state Sen. Joe Hardy of Boulder City became the first politician appointed to the committee who will oversee the breakup process. The commission also appointed four members to an advisory board made up of local community leaders. They include Clark County teachers union leader John Vellardita, former CCSD School Board member Stavan Corbett, former CCSD administrator Tom Rodriguez and Hannah Brown of the Urban Chamber of Commerce.
The appointments are the next step in the four-year process of figuring out how to break up the state’s largest school district — also the nation’s fifth largest — into five separate school precincts in time for the 2018-19 school year.
But there is still a long way to go. The remaining eight members of the breakup committee have yet to be appointed by Senate and Assembly leaders, and the community advisory board could grow to dozens of members before the committee holds its first meeting, which could come as early as January.
The whole process began after state legislators passed Assembly Bill 394 earlier this year. The bill, pushed heavily by Republican Assemblymen David Gardner of the western Las Vegas Valley and Stephen Silberkraus of Henderson, initially gave municipalities the option of breaking off from CCSD but was later amended to require that the district be broken up.
It breezed through the Republican-dominated Assembly but passed the Senate mostly on party lines. Critics of the plan say breaking up the district will only deepen the divide between students in high-performing schools in wealthier neighborhoods and those in low-performing schools in the inner city. Proponents say it will give communities more control over schools by taking power out of the hands of school district bureaucrats.
Of course, whatever plan the committee comes up with could end up being thrown out. That’s because any breakup plan has to be approved by lawmakers during the next legislative session in 2017.Initial leaders chosen to oversee breakup of Clark County School District - Las Vegas Sun News: