Watch list news surprises school board

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

Clark County School Board member Larry Mason doesn't like surprises, and the news Tuesday that the entire Clark County School District was expected to be put on a state watch list for failing to show "adequate yearly progress" was a particularly unpleasant one.

While some members of the district's staff -- including Superintendent Carlos Garcia -- were aware that the state Education Department had made the preliminary designations, board members apparently did not know such a list was even a possibility.

"Somebody dropped the ball," Mason said. "We should have known about this all along."

Senate Bill 1, passed during the first special session this summer, incorporates the federal No Child Left Behind Act into existing state law. The federal education reform calls for 100 percent of students to be proficient in reading, writing and mathematics by the 2013-14 school year.

The bill includes a provision by which the state Education Department can identify entire school districts as "needing improvement" and impose sanctions, similar to the schedule of penalties for individual schools that do not show progress on test scores.

The district must show 95 percent participation for all students and meet achievement benchmarks both overall and by "subgroups" broken down by ethnicity, special education status, non-native English speakers and low-income students.

The penalties, which include withholding funds, demanding revisions to the curriculum or replacing the school board and superintendent, increase with each year that a district remains on the list.

Garcia said Tuesday he had been planning to brief the board on the district watch list soon and did not expect state education officials to raise the topic at Monday's meeting of the Legislative Committee on Education.

The district is appealing the designation, although Garcia said he expected Clark County to be on the final list when it is released early next month. Clark County has 47 percent of its schools on the watch list and another 18 identified as needing improvement.

Mason said he would be asking for an explanation why the board wasn't told earlier.

"We're talking about the state having the power to come in and reconstitute an entire district," Mason said. "That's very troubling to me."

Joyce Haldeman, executive director for community and government relations for the district, was out of the office Tuesday and Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. Craig Kadlub, director of public affairs, did not immediately return calls.

Clark County School Board members should have been aware of all aspects of SB 1, said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson. The provisions of the bill, and the federal education reform act it is patterned on, have been hotly debated for months, Perkins said.

"It seems like we have dialogues and pass laws during the legislative session and then everyone goes home and forgets," said Perkins, chairman of the Legislative Committee on Education. "Whether its school districts, other governmental entities or special interest groups, it's incumbent on everyone who works within the framework of the Nevada Revised Statutes to be familiar with the chapters that affect them."

State Schools Superintendent Jack McLaughlin said Tuesday it's understandable if some board members were not aware of the potential for a district watch list.

"The federal law is over 1,000 pages of fine print," McLaughlin said. "The are many complex new issues, and until you start dealing with them one by one they may not be coming up on everybody's radar."

Nevada, like the rest of the states in the nation, is in the early stages of a fairly steep learning curve, McLaughlin said.

"I saw it back in 1965 when (The Elementary and Secondary Education Act) was passed and I'm seeing it now," McLaughlin said. "With reforms of this magnitude, it takes a few years to get into the swing of things. This isn't the time to point fingers and say 'Why didn't you know' or 'Why didn't you tell me?' It's the time to work together and move ahead."

Washoe County school officials knew about the district watch list, spokesman Steve Mulvenon said.

"We were certainly aware the possibility existed," Mulvenon said. "The federal law was clear on that point -- not only do these various designations apply to schools but they could ultimately apply to districts and then even to state education departments."

Washoe County has been placed on the preliminary list and is appealing, Mulvenon said.

Deborah Wescoatt, a member of the Nye County School Board, said she knew of the watch list but only because she was responsible for most of the research on the No Child Left Behind Act for her district.

"All of this is so new, I think the focus has been on test scores and keeping schools off the list," Wescoatt said. "No one's even worried about the districts yet."