Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Sides differ over School Board meeting encounter

A leader of a group of Hispanic parents says Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Agustin Orci yelled at them after they criticized his job performance at Thursday's Clark County School Board meeting.

Orci confirmed Tuesday that he had spoken with the group at the meeting but said he did not threaten anyone.

Orci and the group's leader, Andres Mendoza, gave nearly identical descriptions of the sequence of events as well as the general content of Orci's remarks. Where the two sides differ, however, is over the tone and intent of the remarks.

Mendoza, who has two children attending Clark County schools, read a letter signed by 50 parents during the public comment portion of the meeting, sharply criticizing Orci, Superintendent Carlos Garcia and East Region Superintendent Maurice Flores.

Mendoza said second-language students in the district's east region, which has a 51 percent Hispanic enrollment, aren't learning English quickly enough and are being denied appropriate services and programs.

Mendoza said Tuesday about 15 parents from the group were in a hallway outside the School Board chambers when they were approached by Orci.

"He was screaming, yelling, shaking his fist at us, saying 'I am Dr. Orci, you never, never come to tell me your problems,' " Mendoza said. "We got scared, we did not expect something like that."

In a letter sent to members of the media and Clark County School Board members Tuesday, Mendoza described Orci as speaking in a "very demeaning and angry tone of voice." He "kept waving his arms and fists almost up in our faces, some parents there thought he was going to punch us in the face," according to the letter.

The letter also asked that Orci be fired and that Garcia, who is set to resign in July, be prevented from making any administrative appointments in the meantime.

Orci disputed the letter's contentions.

"I told them all, in Spanish, who I was and I told them I had never heard of their concerns and would be happy to assist them if they would give me the opportunity," Orci said. "I pointed to where my office was. If they want to interpret that as shaking my fist, that's their privilege."

Orci said he was dismayed that the parents had not attempted to contact him personally prior to Thursday's meeting.

"My final comment was 'I'm at your service' and it was done very assertively," Orci said. "I'm not embarrassed or ashamed and do not feel in any way that I spoke inappropriately."

Mendoza said he didn't previously know that he was supposed to take his complaints to Orci. Up until now, Mendoza said, he and the other parents have dealt directly with teachers and school-level administrators.

"We don't know who's in charge," said Mendoza, who said he named the administrators in the complaint because it was their job to fix the problems. "No one offered us information telling us who we had to talk to about our concerns."

The School Board selected Orci and Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, to serve as interim co-superintendents for the period between Garcia's departure and the hiring of a new full-time chief executive. Both are widely considered contenders for the permanent position.

Clark County School Board President Larry Mason, who represents the east region, said he hoped the situation was nothing more than a genuine misunderstanding between an impassioned administrator and parents who may have misunderstood his intentions.

"Sometimes that old expression is true: It's not what you say but how you say it," Mason said.

At the same time, Mason said, he's troubled by the timing of the parent group's complaints.

Mason said Thursday's episode was reminiscent of an incident in November a parent group used a School Board meeting to chastise member Shirley Barber's attendance record, less than two weeks before she would defend her seat in the general election.

"Dr. Orci is now a potential candidate for superintendent and the cynical side of me wonders if there's some sort of internal or external campaign to influence that," Mason said. "It's interesting that the parents didn't include my name (in the original complaint) and they could have, easily. But it's not an election year, wait until next year."

Mendoza said his group is not backing anyone to replace Garcia.

The Sun asked Mendoza to provide names and phone numbers of some of the other parents who were witnessed the exchange with Orci, but Mendoza did not provide that information Tuesday.

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