Early results in for schools chief survey

Friday, Aug. 26, 2005 | 9:49 a.m.

The next superintendent of the Clark County School District should have budgetary expertise, be a hands-on leader and a visionary planner, according to preliminary results of a survey that sought community input.

Of the 1,537 surveys completed so far, 77 percent were submitted by individuals who identified themselves as School District employees.

Teachers led the employee responses, at 46 percent, with 6 percent of the answers coming from administrators and 6 percent from clerical staff. Of the total surveys received, 15 percent of respondents said they were parents.

The survey isn't scientific, said its authors, Bob McCord and Kathy Harney, the educational consultants hired by the School Board to oversee the superintendent search process.

The opinions represented come only from people who voluntarily logged on to the district's Web site or submitted printed versions. All of the responses, collected between Aug. 12 and 19, were anonymous. The survey will continue through Sept. 7.

When asked the most important area in which the superintendent candidates should excel, nearly 600 respondents chose "budget" from the selection provided. The next-highest vote getters were "community relations" and "elementary curriculum," each with just under 200.

Respondents cited "dealing with growth" and "quality teaching" as the district's strengths, along with the quality of its schools and facilities.

The major challenges facing the district, according to the respondents, are ever-growing class and campus sizes, hiring enough quality employees and education funding.

Harney said she and McCord have also conducted more than 30 interviews, with individuals and groups, to gather input from "community stakeholders."

Interviewees have included the United Way of Southern Nevada, the Latin Chamber of Commerce and chief executives from a variety of industries including gaming, hospitality and banking, Harney said.

Representatives of the district's three bargaining groups, representing teachers, administrators and support staff, were also included in the interview sessions, Harney said.

John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said the higher percentage of teachers responding to the survey reflected the district's demographics, not interest.

The district's 16,000 teachers account for two-thirds of the 25,000 total employees, Jasonek said.

"If you have 700 out of 16,000 teachers fill out a survey, I wouldn't call that a stampede," Jasonek said. "The truth is a lot of teachers think the survey is a joke. They're trying to make ends meet in the classroom, and a couple of big shots in town say we need to go through the charade of a national search."

Jasonek said the union membership would prefer that one of the two interim co-superintendents, Agustin Orci or Walt Rulffes, be appointed to the position. Both are longtime Clark County administrators familiar with the problems faced by the nation's fastest-growing urban district, Jasonek said.

"What we have here are some people who have a hidden agenda to bring in some kind of businessman or some kind of general to run the School District," Jasonek said, alluding to comments made by university system Chancellor Jim Rogers. "The fact is those experiments have not worked, you could not show one urban school district with our kind of diversity that is operating any better than Clark County."

However, Jasonek said, he's not completely opposed to the idea of an outsider getting the chief executive's job.

"If some superintendent wants to come in here with a bucket of money and pay teachers what they're worth, maybe we can talk," Jasonek said.

While neither Orci nor Rulffes has publicly expressed interest in a full-time appointment as superintendent, both men are widely considered leading candidates.

At a press conference Thursday to highlight the start of school next week, Orci and Rulffes focused on their goals for the upcoming academic year, which include reducing the dropout rate and improving the graduation rate.

In an interview with the Sun, Orci said his collaboration with Rulffes is running smoothly. Their contract runs through next July, at which time the School Board expects to have appointed a replacement chief executive.

"What we're doing works right now as a short-term solution, but eventually there needs to be one superintendent," Orci said.

At a meeting with the consultants Thursday, the Clark County School Board reviewed the preliminary survey results, along with proposed text for advertising the open position. The notice, which will run in national trade journals and publications, notes that candidates must hold an advanced degree and the salary will be around $290,000, plus "competitive benefits."

School Board member Ruth Johnson asked for one key change to the consultants' suggested copy.

"Could we not lead with 'The Entertainment Capital of the World'?' asked Johnson, reading from the mock advertisement as the audience and her School Board colleagues chuckled.

"I'd rather not give applicants the impression that all our schools are located in the basement of a casino."

Harney said she expected the language would spark discussion among the School Board, but she included it anyway. That version of the advertisement will go to "the back shelf," Harney said.

"I wanted you to have the opportunity to consider it," Harney said. "If you look at the ads in the New York Times, they're very boring. You want something that stands out."