Garcia gives self passing grades on evaluation

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

When Clark County School Board members meet today to evaluate the performance of Superintendent Carlos Garcia, they'll have at least one glowing critique to consider -- written by Garcia himself.

In his self-evaluation -- required under the School Board's policy governance guidelines -- Garcia gave himself strong marks for meeting the district's performance standards. Areas of assessment include how well he has worked with the board, academic achievement, the district's financial standing and his treatment of district staff, students and families.

Garcia rated himself as "in compliance" with each of the benchmarks set forth by the school board. He cited the creation of new handbooks for families of special education and English Language Learner students as examples of his efforts to better communicate with parents. Families have also been included more in design plans for new schools, and several ideas originated by parents have been incorporated into final designs, Garcia said.

Garcia also noted the successful use of public concern forms to address specific issues or incidents. Since the school year began in September, there have been 56 public concern forms filed, with 34 of the matters being resolved with the first response from the district, Garcia said. Ten of the concerns were resolved after one or two meetings, and 12 were still unresolved.

"As superintendent of a district of over 255,800 students, 56 forms filed for one-half of the school year is a low number," Garcia said in his evaluation. "I believe it is indicative of the effectiveness of the regions in mediating concerns for parents."

The superintendent's evaluation was moved from June to February to better coincide with the release of standardized test results.

Garcia, now in his third year with the district, earns $200,000. He turned down a $10,000 bonus in 2001 but accepted the board's offer to extend his contract through 2005.

Because of the district's $12.6 million budget shortfall Garcia was not offered a bonus in June, although he received unanimous support from the school board after his evaluation.

The board was to meet today in the council chambers for a public session before retreating behind closed doors to discuss the superintendent's performance. Garcia will then be given an opportunity to respond privately to the board's findings before a public announcement is made.