Education board member reveals temporary move

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999 | 10:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Bill Hanlon, one of the outspoken members of the state Board of Education, has moved out of his district in Clark County, but he doesn't intend to resign.

Hanlon said Tuesday his relocation is temporary but if he buys a home outside the district, he will quit the board. Hanlon, coordinator of the Math-Science Institute for the Clark County School District, also writes a weekly newspaper column for daily newspapers in small Nevada towns.

The law says each member of the state board must be a resident of the district in which he or she was elected.

Hanlon has not sought any legal opinion whether he will have to resign.

"When my daughter had twins, she asked us to move in for a couple of months," Hanlon said. The family moved out of District 2, Subdistrict F, which represents Lincoln County and the northern part of Clark County. He moved into Subdistrict G, which represents Nye and a northwest part of Clark County. That district is now represented by Frank Mathews.

Hanlon said he put his house on the market and it sold within two weeks. But he said he still owns property in Subdistrict F and that he intends to move back. He said he would never run against an incumbent education board member.

He likened the situation to a person who goes on an extended vacation. "This is clearly temporary. I don't perceive it as a reason for resignation."

One of his biggest reasons, he said, for staying on the board is that he has been named to a number of national committees. He's a director on the National Association of State School Boards and a member of the Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education as well as a member on other national committees.

Those seats are not automatic for Nevada so the state would probably lose representation if he resigned, he said.

"If I resign from the board early, Nevada's representation would go to another state," he said. "I want to have Nevada represented."

Hanlon made the disclosure of his move at the meeting last week of the state board.

"I put it on the table at a public meeting. I didn't want a whisper campaign," he said.