Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

School Board members thrifty with travel budget

When it comes to traveling on the Clark County School District's dime, board member Susan Brager-Wellman says there's no place like home.

For the second consecutive year, Brager-Wellman did not venture beyond the county for any educational junkets. A real estate agent, Brager-Wellman is one of only two School Board members with a full-time job outside the home. The other is President Larry Mason, Community College of Southern Nevada's dean of student affairs workforce development.

"We have other board members who are able to travel and they bring back good, quality information," Brager-Wellman said. "It doesn't take all seven of us."

There are occasions when more than one board member attend the same conference. But they typically participate in different workshops and training sessions, Brager-Wellman said.

For the 2005 fiscal year, School Board travel expenses totaled $27,800, well below the $54,000 allocated in the district's budget. The prior year's total was also under budget at $33,400.

"We are very conscious that those dollars are taxpayer dollars," Brager-Wellman said.

Mason was the most active traveler, making nine trips, seven of those out of state and one privately funded.

Former School Board member Denise Brodsky, who resigned in August and was replaced by Terri Janison, had six out-of-state trips. Member Shirley Barber traveled beyond Nevada three times. Vice President Ruth Johnson and member Mary Beth Scow each took one trip, to Scottsdale, Ariz., and Lake Tahoe, respectively.

The travel documents turned in by School Board members yielded a few revelations. Mason prefers nonsmoking rooms, Barber likes a king-sized bed and Moulton's husband favors pepperoni and sausage pizza: hold the sauce.

"He's allergic," said Moulton, who paid the $4.37 bill out of her own pocket.

Reading garden at Heard named for late teacher

The Lomie Heard Elementary School has been hard at work on a new garden that honors a former teacher's memory as well as her commitment to literacy.

"Sara's Secret Reading Garden" is named for Sara Labovitz Nikolakopoulos, who died in December at age 37 after battling cancer. In addition to teaching first and second grade at the Nellis Air Force Base campus, she also taught at Frank Kim Elementary School. Nikolakopoulos was a 2003 graduate of the Southern Nevada Writing Project's summer institute and a member of several local and state organizations that promote literacy.

The school's modest plan for turning a grassy patch into a reading area for students quickly bloomed when the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's leadership class heard about it.

Volunteers have spent weekends putting in rock benches, walkways and, just this week, a gazebo.

The labor and supplies were donated by area businesses including Davis Nursery, the Korte Co., MGM Mirage and Silver State Concrete. Clark County School District volunteers have been joined by employees from Metro Police and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The district's School Name Committee heard a proposal Monday to make the garden's name official. Final approval rests with the School Board, which is expected to OK the request. The committee will also consider names for a high school under construction in the northeast Las Vegas Valley as well as several other new facilities.

Older schools get first priority for shade canopies

In asking voters to approve a $3.5 billion capital improvement plan in 1998, the Clark County School District promised to upgrade amenities at older schools, including adding shade canopies.

With 270 requests pending for shade structures, that promise has yet to be fulfilled.

Shade structures are automatically included in plans for new schools. But some older campuses, including Quannah McCall Elementary School in North Las Vegas, have been waiting for years for relief from the sun.

At a facilities work session last week, Carolyn Edwards, a member of the watchdog group Nevadans for Quality Education, warned the School Board that voters in 2008 will expect accountability.

"If you want to get the next bond approved, you need to get shade structures in at the older schools," said Edwards, who also chairs the committee that makes recommendations on attendance zoning to the School Board. "It cannot wait. It needs to be bumped up in priority."

At the work session, the School Board approved a new plan to ensure "shade structure equity," with the oldest inner-city schools getting priority. District officials estimate it will take 18 months -- and as much as $6 million -- to complete the project.

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or [email protected].

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