School Board lauds Garcia’s performance

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004 | 10:45 a.m.

Citing improving graduation rates and student performance on the high school proficiency exam, the Clark County School Board gave Superintendent Carlos Garcia a vote of confidence Tuesday, extended his contract by two years to June 2008 and increased his pay.

Garcia will receive the same pay increase negotiated by the union representing the rest of the district's administrators -- 2 percent for each of the next two years. That will bring his annual salary this year to $212,242.

The board also voted to allow Garcia to double the number of unused vacation days he is allowed to "cash in." He will now be able to cash in 10 vacation days.

In its decision the board noted that in the 2002-03 academic year there were improvements in the following areas:

The board also noted that the district's national percentile scores for reading, math, language and science were maintained or increased for specific grades.

Clark County School Board President Susan Brager-Wellman praised Garcia, saying he had served the district with distinction despite difficult circumstances beyond his control.

"We have No Child Left Behind, we have a lack of appropriate funding, we have our growth and our high student transiency rate," Brager-Wellman said. "Those are significant challenges for anyone."

Garcia said: "I'm grateful for the board's support and I think over the next year we're going to see more gains. We haven't hit all of our marks yet but we're on the right track."

Following a four-hour closed session -- during which they discussed the superintendent's performance over the past 12 months -- the board voted 5-2 in favor of the contract extension. Board members Shirley Barber and Denise Brodsky opposed the decision.

Barber said Garcia should not get credit for the improved percentage of students who received diplomas -- from 75.9 percent in 2002 to 86.7 percent last year. The diploma rate jumped because the Legislature voted to lower the passing grade for the math proficiency exam, Barber said.

"I don't believe we have seen the improvement we should be seeing by now to support a two-year extension," Barber said after the vote.

Garcia was measured on whether he met 16 sets of objectives, ranging from increased participation by students in extracurricular activities and foreign language classes to the number of Clark County schools identified as failing to show "adequate yearly progress" demanded by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

For this year's evaluation, the board determined that Garcia fell short in four areas:

The nation's sixth-largest school district, Clark County has 289 campuses serving 268,300 students. This year 43 percent of the district's schools and academic programs were put on the state's "watch list" for failing to show AYP. A second straight year of low test scores could land the school on the state's "needing improvement" list.

Board member Sheila Moulton noted that per the district's own regulations Garcia had only to satisfy a majority of the requirements in order to be found "in compliance" on his evaluation. She suggested the board consider changing that regulation to give more weight to certain evaluation areas, such as student performance on nationwide proficiency exams.

"We may need to look at prioritizing the list," Moulton said.

Brodsky made a motion to that effect, which was passed unanimously. The board will discuss the issue at its Feb. 12 meeting.

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association representing the majority of the district's 15,000 teachers, said Garcia "had been doing a good job considering the problems he's been handed. Running the school district isn't an easy job. He's dealing with them as best he can with the resources he's been given."

Holloway said Garcia is one of the reasons that for the first time all three of the district's union groups -- representing teachers, administrators and support employees -- have negotiated four-year contracts. Usually the battle for a single year or two-year contract is hard enough, Holloway said.

"It's indicative of the district's willingness to work with us," Holloway said. "(Garcia) set the tone to have more dialogue between the unions and the administration and the School Board."

D.J. Stutz, president of the Nevada PTA, also gave Garcia strong marks overall but said she would like to see more parents involved in the district's decision-making process -- such as the hiring of principals.

"(Garcia) has a lot of challenges ahead of him and he needs the support of the community to get those things done," Stutz said. "You'd see a higher level of parent involvement if they felt they had a bigger stake or say in their local schools."