School Board lightens it committee load

Jace Radke

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 11:18 a.m.

The Clark County School Board moved forward Thursday night with a plan to put some of the committees that it supervises under administrative authority.

The seven-member board currently is responsible for approximately 50 committees which is proving to be too many, according to President Susan Brager.

"This is to clean up the committees and to better establish a direction for the board," Brager said.

In a unanimous decision the board voted that Brager along with board member Judy Witt and Superintendent Brian Cram should look into which committees will be put under district administration.

Some in the audience questioned if elected officials would be fulfilling their duties by passing on committees to non-elected administrators.

"While the development plan's intent seems innocent enough on the surface, I would question the wisdom of the board ceding any more of its responsibilities to the administration," said E. Louis Overstreet, a Las Vegas resident. "The concern should not be for the number of committees, but for the risk that your authority, as elected officials, is being eroded in a precipitous manner."

Brager said that the board would stay in charge of main committees such as board policy, appeal hearings, budget and finance, curriculum and legislative. She also stressed that any committees transferred to administrators would remain public.

"The public forum is most welcome and all the committee meetings will remain public," Brager said. "This will come back before the board after the group working on the proposal has put it all together and the public is welcome to be heard on it."

Whether the committee meetings will remain public was the biggest concern for Glenn Nelson of the Nevada Concerned Citizens group.

"If these changes were to cause a lack of a public forum it would be a problem," Nelson said. "But with the assurances of the board I feel better about the proposal.

"I do understand that there are too many committees and that the board is spread too thin. I'm happy that they are addressing the problem of too many committees and that those committees that no longer serve a purpose are disbanded."

Cram said that ultimately the plan will benefit the board and the school district.

"This plan will allow the board to spend time on the most important issues," Cram said. "It will also provide for us to put sunsets on committees that don't need to be permanent."