Garcia gets additional year

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003 | 10:05 a.m.

Superintendent Carlos Garcia was awarded an additional year on his contract Wednesday following his annual evaluation by the Clark County School Board.

School board members used several benchmarks -- including academic achievement, responsible citizenship and communication -- in their evaluation of Garcia, now in his third year at the helm of the nation's sixth-largest district.

As part of the review process Garcia was required to submit monitoring reports detailing how effectively the school board's directives have been carried out -- including student achievement rates, the numbers of complaints by parents and staff and how rapidly those complaints were heard and resolved.

In the monitoring reports, Garcia gave high marks to district's nearly 30,000 employees for meeting the school board's criteria.

The extension was approved by five board members, with Shirley Barber -- who chaired the superintendent evaluation committee -- opposing. Board member Denise Brodsky, was absent for the vote but participated in the evaluation,

Brodsky said this morning because of the recent changes to the student proficiency and reference tests used by the district she would have recommended putting off discussion of a contract extension until next year.