Columnist Lois Tarkanian: Garcia moves district in right direction

Lois Tarkanian

Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Lois Tarkanian was a trustee of the Clark County School Board for 12 years. Tarkanian has worked in education in a variety of capacities for 46 years. She not only has taught in the classroom, but she also has been a director of special education and a principal as well.

The first significant restructuring for Clark County Schools in almost two decades will be unveiled this spring and put into effect July 1 by Superintendent Carlos Garcia. The dearth of such actions nationally is commonplace in public schools because of the great difficulty in moving a monolithic bureaucracy through habits of past actions, myths and turf protection.

Cosmetic changes are commonplace -- combining, splitting or dropping divisions, moving personnel into positions with different titles and pay, snipping or adding a few programs here and there. To restructure the process, to cut into the spirit of how things are done, is much more difficult.

Because of individual courage, personal philosophy, or in response to Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany's petition to deconsolidate the huge and continually rapid growing Clark County School District, Garcia is making the move. He plans to divide the nation's sixth-largest school district into separate regions. Each would have its own regional superintendent who would have authority to provide whatever is necessary (within budget constraints) to meet the needs of learners within each region.

Garcia will have two or three deputy superintendents who will oversee the regional superintendents. There will be a point person in each region representing each of the district's current divisions (transportation, business, facilities, etc.), plus a new division of instructional services.

The regional superintendent will evaluate, along with regional principals, the work of each division. Thus, each region will have more direct ownership of what is happening in the schools within its area. Each region will work independently with funds going to the regional center for disbursement as determined by regional administrators.

Certainly Garcia's plan meets the spirit of Tiffany's suggestion to break up the district. It provides more local control, better direct services and should be more cost-effective.

In three to five years, student monies might go directly to the regional site where purchases would then be made of services from each district division. For example, if region personnel felt that staff development was not needed or was not of a high enough quality, they would then not contract for it.

If quality services were not provided from a particular division, the requests for such would diminish until the program itself would sunset. This would base district services on supply and demand. Each division would be driven by the customer, i.e., the individual schools. Each division would exist to serve those customers.

This form of restructuring gives far more voice to local regions. Too often personnel at school sites have complained that directives are shoved down their throats.

Within the district, there are stirrings among staff about the excitement of producing positive change. At the same time there are murmurs of concern. Whether morale is lifted, as Garcia has stated he desires, will depend upon which individuals are placed in key positions.

In order to transform schools successfully, educators need to navigate the difficult space between letting go of old patterns and grabbing onto new. It isn't as easy as it might appear.