Rogers offers advice to School Board

Emily Richmond and Christina Littlefield

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.

When Brian Cram retired as superintendent of the Clark County School District six years ago, Jim Rogers volunteered to serve as an interim replacement, a suggestion that he recalls "left icicles hanging from the ceiling."

Rogers hopes his suggestions for replacing Superintendent Carlos Garcia, outlined in a missive mailed to Clark County School Board members Monday, will get a warmer reception.

In his letter Rogers -- who was taken up on his offer by university regents to be interim chancellor and now holds the permanent post -- notes that after meeting with each School Board member six years ago, "it soon became apparent that the Trustees were not going to let me or someone like me even near the Clark County School District."

But his business experience, management style and "understanding of organizational and financial efficiencies have been found to be quite compatible, even though different, with the development of an education system," Rogers wrote.

Rogers told the Sun on Monday the superintendent position should go to someone with a business background who will be more focused on production and the bottom line than academics.

"They move faster than the academic who forms committees that can only seem to decide when the next committee meeting is," Rogers said.

In his letter Rogers encouraged the School Board to look beyond current district employees for possible candidates. He also named "three management geniuses" as examples of the types of individuals they should be looking for:

"I urge that you not pick any present employee or administrator in the Clark County School District system to be your next superintendent, for I believe all you will get is more of the same and more of the same will never make you a success," Rogers wrote. " You need to look outside the system for leadership. That does not mean that you need to look outside of Clark County."

School Board members voted Monday to hire two local educational consultants to begin outlining the superintendent search process. It's expected that candidates will be recruited nationally and that current district employees will not be excluded from the pool.

Two potential candidates are Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, and Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction. The School Board has named the two men to serve as co-interim superintendents following Garcia's departure July 13.

George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district, was also considered a possible candidate to replace Garcia. But Rice told the Sun this morning she would not seek the post.

Rice, who was scheduled to retire in July after 33 years with the district, said she changed her mind after Garcia announced his resignation in mid-April.

With her office in the midst of contract negotiations with the district's employee bargaining groups and Rulffes and Orci preparing to take on the extra workload of sharing Garcia's duties, "it isn't the right time for me to leave," Rice said.

While Rogers' intentions may have been to encourage a broader candidate search what he outlines is actually "too narrow," said School Board member Mary Beth Scow.

"I don't want to cross out any of our options at this point," Scow said. "We have people in our district who are invited to present at national conventions, some really brilliant individuals. I'd hate to see us rule them out before we even begin."

Snyder, chairman of UNLV's soon-to-be announced capital campaign, said he was "flattered" by Rogers' suggestion but that he is "not looking for a day job, and that's a big day job."

Neither Martin nor Schaeffer could be reached for comment Monday. Rogers said he did not tell the three men in advance that he planned to hold them up as examples in his letter.

Rogers pointed out to the School Board that he was writing in his individual capacity as owner, chairman and chief executive of Sunbelt Communications Co.