LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The Clark County School Board of Trustees has chosen who will be moving forward to the next round of interviews to become the next superintendent.
And it comes at a time when critics say there is a lot of distrust following the last superintendent who resigned nearly a year ago today.
Three finalists out of four candidates will be heading to the next part of the process that will involve more interviews and community forums.
Those are Dr. Jesse Welsh, the CEO of Nevada State High School who interviewed Monday night, as well as Jhone Ebert, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Nevada, and the only candidate of the three from out of state, Ben Shuldiner, the superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan.
During interviews with Ebert, she spoke about reenergizing educators.
“They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want to know. They want you to know where they’re at,” said Ebert.
One of the discussions during the interviews was addressing the thousands of students who’ve left CCSD over the last few years.
“Trust. We need to be transparent in what we’re doing and everything,” said Ebert. “There has been silence in some instances as a school district when we needed to own up that we had issues.”
CCSD educator Terolyn Thompson says Shuldiner has strong ideas on how to keep kids in CCSD moving forward.
“I like the idea that he’s talking about, like, that we need pre-K in all the schools so that we keep students in our school district,” said Thompson, a middle school theater teacher.
Shuldiner spent much of his presentation speaking on the importance of strong budgeting and making the right financial decisions.
He also talked about the strides he made in increasing graduation rates in his current district and how that would translate in Clark County.
“You have monthly meetings where the building and district graduation specialists are meeting and going over each and every name, and then I, as superintendent, sit with every high school,” said Shuldiner.
Shuldiner asked with his advancements in Lansing, why he would leave to come to the Valley.
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“I come from a long line of people that have devoted their life to public service, and if there is a meaning to life, it is to help as many people as you possibly can,” he said.
But, some Tuesday said they want someone more familiar with the Clark County community.
“Jhone has controlled a very large, massive machine. And there’s a lot of moving parts to it. Jhone Ebert I do see as one of your top candidates,” said David Gomez, the president of the Nevada Peace Alliance.
The Clark County Education Association says whoever takes the role needs to be successful in the ongoing legislative session in Carson City.
“This is not the time for someone to learn on the job how to effectively run a school district this size. Nor is this the time to have someone lead our district who does not have the political acumen to successfully work Nevada state politics for CCSD,” said Marie Neisess, president of Clark County Education Association.
Now Dr. John Anzalone is the only candidate who interviewed and was voted by trustees not to move forward.
They didn’t share why they voted not to proceed with him.
But the teachers’ union claimed that former Superintendent Jesus Jara has been lobbying for Anzalone to become the next top boss.
It’s going to be a busy next few weeks as the board will be having many events before deciding who will be selected.
So, what’s next?
On March 10th there will be a community forum with the three candidates.
There will be more details on the location and time provided soon.
March 11th the board will interview the candidates again.
