No "F Minus" Please... Education Week Names Nevada 50th in the Nation for Education
Issues
While students come to school to learn daily and teachers come to teach, it is a sad reality that the top level bureaucrats come to work at CCSD looking out for their own jobs and other self serving shenanigans. You wouldn't think that employment in such upper level positions of a district claiming to be destitute would be so self serving and money driven... But they are. Running a school district with a $2 Billion budget is a great source of power and prestige so many of the top level staff work there for the power too. Power and money... While there are a small number of staff at those pay grades who want what is best for children and taxpayers they are in the minority and afraid to speak out. Many of these people sit an elbow away from secretaries and mid level managers who collect the underpayment standard for the district. And so the internal politics of the district is very stressful and divisive at the top. This all leads to political maneuvering and shenanigans that trickle downhill the way that famous commodity does.... imposing disappointment on (in turn) teachers and students. Parents looking in from the outside may believe anything form the propaganda put forth by the PR department, to Trustees, to what their 8 year old or her teacher says. So if you think that your opinion is based upon the truth I would assert that maybe you and I have been told something but I doubt it is the truth. With that in mind we have to start somewhere and so these are my opinions based on the variety of truths that I know.
The Following is a List of Items In The News or That I Am Currently Occupied With
- School Vouchers
If you are voting on the school board race due to endorsements of school vouchers. The school board does not get to make this decision. This will require a modification to the state constitution by the legislature. So if you are for or agains this Ken suggests that you look to your state legislature and govonor candidates and not the school board to decide this issue.
So up until now I actually only had positions on things that the school board does. I have no positions on the national income tax, international trade or other things that the school board has no choice in. I believe that Brian Sandoval will win and he has stated that we will have school vouchers. If this happens the school board has to play the cards that it is dealt.
I find it a political amazement that my opponent has endorsed school vouchers because her activities have done everything to block it.
The situation is actually this. The theory advanced for school vouchers is this. ‘Of every three dollars that is spent on education the state will take two and provide a voucher to students to get a private education. The third dollar will stay with CCSD to increase educational standards there.’ Sorry but because the school board (led by Edwards as overseer of the Bond Oversight committee last year) built too many schools we now have a $650 million dollar plus bond debt service payment. That $650 is the “Third dollar”. So vouchers will not improve CCSD. We will simply go into gross underutilization of the massive infrastructure that they just wasted lots of money on. Cost per student will rise in excess of the “Extra dollar” per student because we still have to pay the bond debt.
So what my opinion is.. is that I see no ECONOMIC plan for vouchers to work at CCSD right now. Because Edwards and the school board have already maneuvered to where the ideas put forth are being blocked by decisions that cannot be undone. Please remember that about 1 year ago I tried my best to get the trustees not to build $50 million in unneeded new elementary schools to head this problem off. They built the new unneeded schools to set up this scenario.
The public doesn’t realize that although they thought that they voted to pay $3.5 billion for new schools that Edwards voted to actually sell $5 billion. This means that they painted you into a corner to pay back that crushing bond debt. Now she wants to claim that she supports vouchers and doesn’t admit that if they had stopped building at $3.5 billion vouchers would provide some significant improvement in per student spending. Now it will not.
Example: Things like this enormous central kitchen will not run productively at dramatically reduced capacity. And they paid millions to remodel the school kitchens to make it impossible for schools to prepare meals anymore. So the central super-kitchen can’t be closed without more infrastructure costs.
So my position is that if someone comes up with a voucher plan where the math adds up then I can/may/will advocate that plan. Right now no one has a plan where the numbers add up…
If you see Edwards get reelected then expect that she will then have the “Realization” that the numbers don’t add up and therefore can’t support whatever plan is then considered.
The public doesn’t realize that the current board has seen these things coming and worked hard against the possibility of doing them for years.
Part two of this issue is school choice.
Most of what is hoped to be achieved in a voucher plan is going to occur in school choice which I support and is economic. School choice simply means that you can take your student to any school that has an open seat and enroll them. While Edwards claims to be for this… she is now the vice president of the board and it is not allowed. In fact the number one complaint (to me) of caring parents is that the district fights every transfer tooth and tail under her leadership.
While the Trustees don’t get a say on vouchers they do on school choice and I will vote for school choice.
I “Rattled this off” in about 15 minutes on Monday 10-18-2010 after the LVRJ incorrectly stated that I am against school vouchers. Perhaps a more refined version will be forthcoming soon. I find it most amazing that the RJ uses this as a litmus test for selecting school board members when school board members have not vote on this issue.
- Board Leadership Floats Out a Few
Annoying Trial Balloons for Fixing Their Cost of Incompetent
Management and Planning That Have Now Come Home to Roost.
You have probably heard Janison on the news threatening to fire everyone and rehire at lower pay rates.... And also the idea of going to a 12 month school year for k-5 school to save money. Sadly, this PR is just a tool that tortures everybody. The reason for the tool is so that the board leadership can claim credit for "Saving the day" when these solutions are mostly avoided. It is absurd in so many ways that they all can't be listed... However, the actual answer is that the Trustees don't get extra credit for cleaning up their own mess. I will predict that the fire rehire solution will not be used. There will be a few schools that change calendars but not all. Remember that the board is driven by PUBLIC RELATIONS NOT PERFORMANCE. Forget about what is being said and watch what actions they take to see where things are going. What actions are they taking? Ever see a deer in your headlights? While the rest of the Trustees have that look, Terri is acting like she should be mayor of Vegas in her TV interviews about firing them all. Of course she has plans for higher office and is expecting a big power play to come into her hands in the near future. No doubt its the stimulus money. Money is power. Edwards who has been the number two ring leader for the last 2 years is on the ropes over her newsletter article and the related story below. Four of the Trustees were at the Bond Oversight meeting today 3/18/10. If you want power, follow the money.
Now You Can See in What Direction the Propaganda is going...
It appears that the Trustees have staged this to force the election of their hand selected replacements or reelection of Edwards. Since the School district is apparently getting more money this year than last the need for cut backs is not immediate. The unions have the choice of supporting the incumbent or hand picked predecessors or going against those who hold the purse strings now. It serves a couple of other functions. The public now thinks that they avoided a crisis and this reaffirms the disinformation that financial cut backs are the cause of most problems. - Press Reported Edwards made the motion
to award the Secret Bonus Money
Given to Walt and his Top 5 Staff at CCSD according to NPRI and
Las Vegas Review Journal.
A now departed CCSD director level administrator once taught me what “Inexplicable” means to the top dogs at CCSD. Unlike you and I, who usually go with the dictionary definition, they can make up their own definition. So what does “Inexplicable” mean to the big and powerful at CCSD?
Inexplicable – means that there is an explanation, but you wouldn’t want to be on the witness stand explaining it!!!!
Maybe you saw the Las Vegas Tribune last week (03/01/2010) or heard on the other news that there was another acrimonious CCSD Board meeting where members of the audience called for Trustees to resign etc…. The issue that has brought so much anger from Teachers, CCSD (unprivileged, normal) staff, parents and activists is that of “Sneaking” a few extra Bucks to Walt (over $50,000) and more for his top 5 staff. While giving the top staff in the school district a back door bonus, the Trustees were telling children that they were about to cut services AGAIN. Teachers & staff were told that there would be layoffs or salary reductions and more. Meanwhile, the Trustees managed to get some money to Walt and the gang without public notice prior or recording it in minutes.
In this month’s newsletter distributed By CCSD for Trustee Edwards she states that this was all done before she took office. I have been given the contracts. They are dated November 2009. See the proof at www.TalkToCCSD.com. Here is a great article from NPRI on what happened.
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Failing Schools
No one on the board has any education or experience in school planning. So much of what is decided is based upon the advice of upper level staff who are self serving. The Trustees think that the problem of actually educating children can’t be solved. So they put their emphasis on deflecting the blame onto parents, lack of money and others.Budgeting
Staff in the planning department (looking out for their own jobs flows with the tide) as Trustees make one absurd decision after another. In 2009 the head of the Facilities Department told the bond Oversight that a school originally budgeted by CCSD has ended up costing near 40% more. Part of his explanation as to why was that the CCSD employee who was overseeing the development of the school had died and the head of Facilities actually didn’t know how to hold the line on the budget!!! Check out the Career and Technical Academies.Persons With Disabilities
In recently watching old videos of CCSD Board members, I found a video training of the Trustees regarding Policy Governance. the "Read between the lines" idea of the training is largely HOW TO IGNORE THOSE WHO COMPLAIN TO THE BOARD. Many of "Those People" are underrepresented at the board meetings. So this becomes a rationalization to exclude considering or addressing their views. For the Trustees who have been on the board for the last 4 years or longer, this is a tool for not wanting to hear something. You would think that if only one person came to the board to present illegal activities then they would consider that and reply or change. This has not been my experience. I have presented to the board and seen others present to the board many items that are in violation of ADA. As parents are inarticulate about the law many times they report these illegal activities without sighting a specific legal violation. For this reason the School Board has 2 attorneys attending the meetings. So they can know if something is illegal. I believe that the school district and board regularly disregard federal law including deliberate flagrant intentional refusal to comply with ADA. How is it that the Trustees can think that they may disregard those who complain on these matters? It is the policy governance rationalization that there have only been a few "Complainers". Of course children with disabilities are the main victims of this attitude. The concept of "Federal Law" seems to be confusing to the board. Maybe they think it is a "Federal Guideline?" (implying discretion) This is one of many examples of how the Trustees fail the public. Compliance with federal law is a primary requirement of elected officials.This is important even if you don't care about students and members of the public with disabilities because it shows how their illegal activities waste bond money that you and I will have to repay. Think of the same question as it relates to everything... “Was the money, thus far, well spent?” Sadly, the answer is a resounding NO. Upper level management has to regain the public trust.
Planning
Problems of today are the results of yesterdays bad planning. Looking at the planning of competent Boards of the past you will see, for instance, that they were able to plan schools that students could walk to. During the 2008 AZAC was directed to ignore the cost of school bussing when laying out school boundaries. This resulted in an additional $400,000 in bussing costs being incurred by the state. This money was disregarded because the Trustees think that since it comes from a different line of funding from the state they should have no concern for trying to save money. Of course the money still comes from the tax payers. - During a bond Oversight Committee hearing in late 2009 the CCSD statistician was ordered by the accounting department to report statistics that would prove that the district was still growing at such a pace that 4 new schools would be needed. The Statistician made such claims as 'How do we know that all of those U-Hauls contain any outgoing children'. In August through December 2009 construction was begun on 3 elementary schools that are unneeded due to the obviously falling population. In 2010 the cost of operating these schools will add to the crushing overhead of the district. Meanwhile the district has failed our existing schools and the Trustees openly hold fixing problems at existing schools as a "Hammer" over the heads of old neighborhoods. This to make them support the another planned, bloated budget, $10 Billion bond election. Was this money left over from the $3.5 Billion that voters were told that they voted for in 1998? Nope. They spent that money long ago and borrowed more. The Last draw was another $100 million borrowed around the first of the year. State and local tax dollars will go to pay back the bonds. Unlike buying supplies and paying teachers the Trustees have set this up as a primary obligation of the District to be paid FIRST. Here is one board meeting where I complained about the problem. Unfortunately, it is a link to the entire meeting not just a part...
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Cost of Education
While the Trustees and Top Staff think that part of the public relations solution for their failure to educate is to blame lack of funding. They will tell you that they only get $3,500 to $7,000 per year per student as their excuse. You can go to the CCSD web site and find out their total budget. Then divide it by their total enrollment. Simple math tells you that they get over $10,000 per year per student. The rest is trick math and excuses. $10,000 is near the national average. So what is the problem with money? Only about 1/3 makes it to the actual classroom to educate students. -
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Financial Mismanagement
Architects and facilities managers often trade stories of the Facilities department newly painting buildings just before they are scheduled for demolition. One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing... Meanwhile the Trustees and facilities claim to have no money to repair roofs or change air conditioner filters.
Failure to maintain facilities is the hallmark of CCSD facilities department. Stories abound of air conditioners having been retired when they found the original filters in them. Ten years later they were never changed once..... never changed. Buildings that are relatively new are being demolished because Facilities failed to maintain the roofs and the structure was ruined by water. Is buying a new building cheaper than maintaining the old? - Trustees regularly hire consultants under contracts of less that $100,000 for political reasons. Many of these people are recent retirees. I imagine that the Trustees are buying something valuable but stories vary about what it is. There should be a ban on hiring anyone who leaves within 1 year. Right now departing the top ranked assures that they will at least consider hiring you on a negotiated contract (back room deal) soon after you retire.
- In 2009 I pointed out that CCSD had invented its own special unusual kind of construction expert and was developing a cottage industry of these companies, providing a service that no one else wants. When I pointed out that these were all back room deals paying the same top dollar that CCSD paid during the boom, the Trustees paid it anyway. This is the kind of blatant refusal to save money that angers people who are being told that they can't get updating of schools in older neighborhoods. Watch the 09/10/2009 Board Meeting to see $50,000 get flushed this way.
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We are done building new schools for a long time. A few months back the Clark County Debt Management Commission put a stop to CCSD borrowing more money. In a recent article in the LVRJ the CFO of CCSD implied that they intend to run the program going forward similar to a Ponzi scheme where this years bond sales will have to go to pay last years bond interest. So all we have to spend is all that they have now. We don't have a straight answer on how much that is. At the end of 2009 I tried to put a stop to them go awarding contracts for 4 new UNNEEDED elementary schools that are now under construction. So we have 4 new schools, not enough kids to fill them and are laying off teachers and other staff. So CCSD has no staff to run them. More than half the staff involved in this need to be fired for cause, in my opinion. What is left of the money on hand should have been used to fix up existing schools so that people in existing neighborhoods don't leave due to bad schools. After (if) the boom comes back CCSD will not need elementary schools for a long time. This situation is such a mess already that regardless of what I do, CCSD will be a long time restoring bondholder and taxpayer confidence.
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In 1998 the voters were told that they voted for a $3.5 Billion bond sale. During the last 3 years and as of 2010 the Trustees have taken it upon themselves to sell $5.1 billion without going back to the voters. Sound like a problem? You bet it is!!! According to a recent newspaper report they plan to run the bond program like a giant Ponzi scheme!!! They plan to use the money from this year’s bond sales to pay the interest on the prior bonds sold? This is mortgaging the future. It is the result of hugely incompetent planning for the last 4 years. The debt service that CCSD and the taxpayers will have to pay this year is over $650 million. That is the equivalent of all the teachers salaries combined!
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Trustees Accepting Responsibility
If you attend the board meetings you will see that even the audience is more than they can handle. Parental frustration is high and so the Trustees will not allow the parents to speak long enough to make a complete explanation. If you have ever heard the kind of public speaking that goes on at the County Commission or the LV City Council that is not how it goes at the School Board. Civility is low and anger runs high because the Trustees will not acknowledge legitimate concerns or accept criticism constructively from the attendees.Systematically abdicating responsibility to staff and committees is that standard for the current Board. While the public thinks that it elected these officials to run the district, the Trustees attempt to avoid showing their lack of capability in dealing with the issues by forming committees the delegating the decision making to them. This is called "Disenfranchising the vote". It means that someone else besides who you elected is deciding. Such hot potatoes as school districting are put at arms length to the Trustees so that they can claim it is not them. The reality is that AZAC plays the hand that it is dealt by CCSD. Staff regularly admits to incompetent planning and land acquisition shenanigans. The Board is still to blame.
When these committees get too smart for their own good and begin uncovering wrong doing the Trustees then step in and put a stop to and discovery. Such is the case of the Bond Oversight Committee. Trustees told the BOC in 2009 not to examine individual contractor change orders on school building projects. What fiduciary responsibility?
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Working with Teachers
The vast majority of teachers go into that profession knowing that they will be doing it more for the gratification of helping our students than for the money. The Trustees have sadly dealt the district's many teachers a bad hand over many years. Inadequate facilities, nasty internal politics insufficient supplies are the daily hallmark of this leadership. It seems unreasonable to blame the teachers. Rather I believe that we should give the teachers the tools to help themselves where some may be individually lacking. My experience has been that there are some teachers who have been so soured by the bad treatment of the district that they may never recover. But, for the majority, they are good teachers. For the remainder who want to do better, the district should provide better assistance. In the private sector we invest heavily in employees who we think will stay with us for their entire careers. CCSD has a talent for encouraging departure to anyone who can. Young teachers who can't find work elsewhere come to Clark County, get a couple of years experience and are then able to get hired back home. So they leave. It is a broken adversarial system. You would not pick a fight with your kids teacher and then send the kid to be with him/her for the day. What makes the Trustees think this is going to work? - Multiple Layers of Management
When the Trustees decided to divide the district up into the "Regions" the arguments were made along scholastic lines. Now that this system has been in place, the current Trustees have no idea how to use it to any advantage. It has become just another layer of bureaucracy for them to hide behind.
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Breaking Up the School District
Breaking up the district under the current circumstance is one way to create an even bigger disaster than what we have now. False claims of efficiency of scale in purchasing are an absurd smokescreen to protect the Trustees from the legacy of being the ones who destroyed the district. The reality is that some of the regions are headed by competent heads and staff. Other are headed by political appointees who the heads have to promote to maintain their silence. Division with what we have now would result in some of the divided entities succeeding and some failing worse than what we have now.In shrinking departments such as Facilities Construction, the Trustees have failed in their management of the system. In private industry businesses, in a layoff, keep those who are needed and let the multiple layers of commend go. Slicing out layers is the solution for cost cutting. Keeping all the "Worker Bees" and retaining the midlevel managers should be the plan. Top level managers at CCSD are mostly in house politicians that spend their days preparing to present excuses to the Trustees and the public.
- A better solution is that of what you could call a district run more like a confederation of states. Each would adapt itself to its own needs. Some services could be shared while others would be separated. This would all serve under a lean top organization run by the Trustees. Unfortunately, the Trustees have no idea of how to get there. This idea of the districts must have been invented by someone who died or was fired. Because, The Trustees have no idea how to use it to get anywhere.
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The 'One Size Fits All' School District
The biggest educational and physical plant planning problem that CCSD has is that the Trustees see CCSD as a "top down" system where they make rules that are uniformly enforced throughout. I call it the one size fits all concept. Most notable was the amazement on the staff's faces when they asked the Edison people what their standard requirements were for outfitting a school or classroom. When Edison told them that they did things differently in different places the reaction was amazement. CCSD's newly touted epiphany is "Empowerment Schools". It means acceptance of the fact that a board of 7 people who have no education in school planning and only one of which has ever been a teacher can't dictate the rules for over 100 diverse schools and expect them to work!!! Amazing. What is amazing is that anyone expected it to work. The school district is just too large. This concept started failing 10 years ago. It was apparent to me that it had failed in 2005 when I first had it's workings explained to me. Darwinism, adapt of die. Its such a shame a generation of students had to suffer while the Trustees get the word. - Educational Reform
Most claims of educational reform are really the Trustees realizing that the interim dumb idea didn't work. Other ideas that Trustees have taken credit for are simple things that the top staff have been forced to do because of economics or following suit with comparable school districts. -
Policy Governance
Get rid of it. It is a crutch being used by the Trustees to conceal their inability to make good decisions. It was not designed for this but it is being used to abdicate control to staff or to deflect blame. Are you fooled? I am not. If the Trustees can’t take full responsibility then they should quit. -
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If you attend the board meetings you will hear Trustees taking credit for inventing things that other school districts can learn from. The reality in many cases is that some Trustees are ignorant and do not do their homework. Therefore, staff will explain something that many others do as though it is staff's idea. Either they want to take credit or they treat some Trustees as ignorant. Either way the result is self-congratulations for some ides that is not new or inventive. One such example is that of restructuring public comments on board hearing items. Currently Carolyn Edwards takes credit for implementing this big idea. The reality is that the public was just angry about how they were being treated and wanted something like the way CLV or Clark County does things. While the Trustees still treat the public with distain this was an improvement. However, I would not call it a Board Success. More like too little too late.Webcasts of board meetings is another two little too late thing. When the public outcry for reduced secrecy became a concern, the public that was disenfranchised by the Trustees behavior started going to the legislature to break them up. Compromises had to be made. The Trustees did not want everyone to see them “Making the sausage”. Putting the Trustees on cable TV like the County or City meetings would have resulted in an end to the district quickly. The obvious answer is to post the videos on a very slow system. Downloads often take overnight they run so slow. When you watch old meetings online there is no fast forward and in January, they disabled the ability to download completely. Members of the press that the Trustees or Walt do not like (or activists) can get better quality final versions after waiting for weeks. These will be copy-protected disks to further restrict their use. This is hailed as a big advance. In reality, this was avoidance of real broadcasting. That should have been done when the boom was on. Had that happened we would not be in the situation we are now in. Worried about the cost? Believe me that Trustees would not be doing near the ongoing amount of money wasting that they are now if they thought you were watching.
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Accessibility and Parental Involvement
You will note claims that the Trustees have increased parental involvement and accessibility. The CCSD propaganda machine is working full force and overtime trying to get out the messages that they are working on. In recent history about ½ of the Trustees are retired or stay at home moms with kids old enough to allow them to spend their days passing out the message. Some Trustees spend every day out pressing the flesh with apparent goals of future high office. Although going from one CCSD meeting with parents to another PTA meeting to another all day is a good political action plan, it hardly constitutes parental involvement (nor Management of anything but spin.).Meanwhile the top down divisiveness has worked to slap some parents in the face. The present situation with West Prep and Rose Moore's collapse at the podium in the face of abuse from the Chairperson are reality examples. Go to YouTube.com and search on “TalkToCCSD Parent Unfriendly” and watch the video.
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Cover Ups Are Common
Since the 2006 election almost all indicators for CCSD are down. No Child left behind failure and Adequate Yearly Progress Failure are more typical then not. CCSD lives under crushing debt and with high overhead. For those reasons alone the accounting for statistics and confusing the public on the main issues are the game plan. -
Empowerment Schools
Most claims of educational reform are really the Trustees realizing that the interim dumb idea didn't work. A basic good management concept for any organization in the world is having the lowest person who can competently make a decision... actually make that decision. Since the Trustees have used Policy Governance and other soviet style parliamentary procedures to issue edicts to the staff below them schools have steadily lost the ability to make decisions."empowerment" simply means untying the hands of those who's hands the Trustees previously tied. What a great idea? I don't think that they deserve and credit for undoing the boards previous stupid decision trail. also this is not some great new idea. Like many of the great ideas that you hear touted this is only a public relations campaign. Fortunately many teachers and staff and students are looking for any excuse to do better and this has become one. Just think of how great they would be doing if someone who actually knew how to plan these things out would focus on a specific solution to each problem!!! -
Educational Solutions
So if "Empowerment Schools" is just a political spin phrase then where are the solutions? Actually the USA is filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of educational solutions to the problems that CCSD has. These are known working solutions that are considered "Tried and True" in other school districts. The reason why these solutions "Won't work" here is because the Trustees want "One size fits all" solutions. That means that each school has its own problems and that they each need to initiate their own solutions. the school board only wants the one size fits all solutions and there are few solutions that will adapt everywhere in a county this large. So how does this play out in the real world? CCSD used to send staff to (CEFPI.org) the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International. Staff would come back with a solution and expect that they could use it WITHOUT INCLUDING ANY THINKING on CCSD's managers part. They don't want to think so hard so they just mindlessly plug in a solution somewhere without looking at other related issues in the school and ... guess what? it fails! Yes my friends if I brought back the brand new invention of a hammer from afar and told them to try it... they would use it to cut a hole in a piece of wood and tell me that it failed!So after trying many solutions that were the wrong tool for the job, they declare each solution "Won't work".
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Give Me An Example of a Solution That Failed at CCSD & Works Great Elsewhere!
"House Concept" or PODS or "Great Rooms" are different names for dividing the big elementary schools into groups within the school. this concept works great almost everywhere that it has been tried. either due to stupidity or because they wanted it to fail CCSD left out a major part that makes it work. On Theriot elementary they have no windows between the great room and the classrooms. This sabotaged the functionality of the system at that school. Then they instructed the teachers to use the great rooms for storage. From that point on the Trustees have insisted that PODS are a failure. The saddest part of this stupidity is that the main problem is that the Trustees FAILED TO EDUCATE their own staff about how and why it is supposed to work. The Trustees themselves can't be bothered learning what went wrong so now that very good solution foe SOME PROBLEMS ONLY is branded unworkable. By the way many schools have won national awards using great rooms!!! It is not THE SOLUTION for everything! It is just a solution that can work for some problems. A solution example.... -
Public Information
Currently the school board has had major problems with complying with the public notice, records and freedom of information act compliance. Meeting minutes are directed by the Trustees to be so vague that anyone reading them after the fact could understand what was said. The ACLU was forced to sue the district to force them to release emails to a reporter. After losing in court the school board still fought the effort to get the information. They don't want you to know what is going on. As an attendee at many school board meetings I have been aware that many of these practices are illegal. The board needs to come into compliance with the law. -
Televising School Board Meetings
I believe that if you had the ability to watch the school board meetings like you do with the City Council and the Clark County Commission, things will be different. So does the school board. They will not admit this, but they do too. Fear that the state legislature would force them to telecast the meetings is a problem for the Trustees. This is a major reason why the school board has decided to put some meetings on the internet. When I first posted this the current plan was to put very poor quality videos on the net with no fast forward or rewind and other tools missing... to stop people from going right to the information that they want to know. since that time (recently) some tools have showed up on the CCSD video web site to help users. However, they still will not allow you to download the videos and watch at your own pace. since that plan to discourage users failed... Current information suppression excuses include the cost. Actually the video that they post now to the internet is enough to get the process of broadcasting the truth to the public going. According to the information presented during the 05/07/07 meeting Channel 10 reported that once CCSD bought the equipment to do what they are doing today they have the equipment to broadcast. Any added cost will be optional. That option will include decisions to include a "Director" who can switch from camera to camera and to improve from what we have now. That cost is optional. If this was done you would see how the school board disregards parents that come to the board, people who identify illegal activities and those who offer solutions. You can watch the school board meeting on 05/07/07. A little reading between the lines will enable you to understand how they fear being forced to do this. So the school board touts it's "Enhancement" of placing meetings on the internet. The reality is that it was a trick to avoid being forced by the legislature to telecast the meetings so that everyone can watch. You must also know that not all meetings are on the net. Only the Thursday night meetings are on the net. Others are not. If you want improvement in how the school district is run then you want the public to know what is going on. -
Childhood Obesity
The following is a letter that I sent to the editor of the LVRJ:Follow up on this issue. 6 Months after I told the Trustees that this is going on and posted it to YouTube they voted to do it again.
Regarding Michelle Alejandra Booth article: “Childhood Obesity Increasing” in the LVRJ Spring Valley View 3/2/2010
Readers should no longer wonder why childhood obesity is up in Nevada. The Clark County School District is actively teaching our children to eat the worst food readily available. When you send your 5 year old to CCSD they begin a program of teaching that child to eat brownies, cookies, cup cakes, chocolate whole milk and fast food.
KLAS Channel 8 had an interesting report on the school board during May 2010. This is a link.
This story is about how the Trustees called for "Shared Sacrifice" for all CCSD employees while giving the top 5 staff a big bonus. Public outcry later made the top 5 give the money back. This is not the entire story because the superintendent of school got the same big bonus and didn't give it back.
Looks like my opponent has made the owner of the best local TV station pretty irritated. He wrote Edwards a letter telling her his opinion.
Jim Rogers is supported by a petition of parents for the position of superintendent replacing the soon to depart Walt Rulffes. Edwards apparently went to visit Rogers and told him that there was a back room deal to make Edwards the President of the school board after the election. Edwards doesn't get to run the meeting s very often because the current president Terri Janison is not absent much. But the public and Kevinn Donovan got a taste of what it will be like recently and Jim Rogers had an opinion on that too. Rogers example of Edwards behavior is representative of how I have been treated by those running the board sometimes. Since the paragraph above was written the school board has had a parent arrested. Rogers has written another letter. Here is a link to the two letters.
When the school board tells tax payers that parents don't have an interest in education. Take a look at the school board's interest in the opinion of parents!!! See if you can figure out why parents have given up on them!!! The letter is here. The Las Vegas RJ reported this www.LVRJ.com and so did the Tribune. www.LasVegasTribune.com Search on "Edwards".
September 2010... Are you about to register your student for school in the fall?
Are you a parent who is about to sign your student up for the next school year? Perhaps you are wondering if your nearby school is failing? (No Child Left Behind or AYP?) There are a series of steps to rate your school. These include having the State Board of Education involved. Right now it looks like you will find out just in time to sign up for the next school year. This article from the Las Vegas Sun - Explains why. Also, CCSD does quite a lot of protesting to try to wriggle out of its failing school rankings. So it may not be over just after the rankings are announced. All that said... let me give you a hint as to the answer. Last year 171 of about 300 schools failed. The School Board wanted to make a 50% high school graduation rate a GOAL!! (yes it is now below 50%) The feds forced them to raise the standards and the effects of another year of incompetent management from this school board continue to wear on our families. The odds are that your school has failed.
If your school has failed then CCSD MAY be required to move your child to a school that has passed. If your school failed last year then... When you go to register your kid just write on the form requesting that your child be sent to a school that has passed. The rules are complicated and staff is sometime misinformed. So just formally request it and see what happens. If your school is like a school for my neighborhood then there may actually be no nearby school that has passed!
Ken won in the primary... Yahoo!
So the short story is that the top 2 vote getters regardless of party continue on to the general election. And so I have succeeded in winning in the primary. Edwards is the incumbent and has lots of money and the endorsement of the school district teachers union. I believe that the voters who picked the other two candidates are voting against the entrenched incumbent system. So I think that I have a very good chance of attracting them to vote for me. I expect to get dragged through the mud pretty soon because now they know I'm a real threat. So don't be surprised when it happens. Remember you heard it here first!!!! Interestingly... Edwards who is the incumbent, outspent me 2 to 1 in the primary and only came out 4 points ahead of me. With Altman's endorsement I should now be able to get 51% of the vote. This should be a source of optimism and has resulted in many folks calling me to help. Since the primary many folks have contacted me to help. I'm real glad to have you participate. If you are interested just opt in by clicking "Get Campaign Email" above.
Ken Small