LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Legislation that would have required the Clark County School Board to televise its meetings was downgraded to a recommendation by the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday .

Washoe and Carson City school districts, the second - and third - largest in the state after Clark County, already broadcast meetings on local access stations. The original language of Assembly Bill 267 would have forced Clark County to do the same.

The mandate was scaled back after district officials said they wanted to comply, but more time was needed.

"We're asking them to look at it and come back in two years and tell us whether or not they could do it," said Assemblyman Richard "Tick" Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, the bill's lead sponsor.

There's been confusion as to the role Vegas PBS, formerly known as KLVX Channel 10, plays in the Clark County School District. Several lawmakers noted that the K-12 budget contained substantial appropriations for the station's operations, and asked why the responsibility for broadcasting meetings didn't fall to Channel 10.

While the School Board holds the license for the station, it's an independently operated PBS affiliate, said Joyce Haldeman, executive director of community and government relations for the district.

"It's not the kind of thing where the trustees can say we're going to take a four- to five-hour block and broadcast School Board meetings," Haldeman said. "This is different from having a government access channel."

The equipment and accompanying modifications to the School Board's meeting room could run as high as $500,000, depending on how many cameras are used and the quality of the production values, Haldeman said.

To Segerblom, that's a bargain.

With its $2 billion annual budget, the School District "can spend a couple hundred thousand to let us see what's going on," Segerblom said.

The state Education Department's request for two new staff positions has won support from the Ways and Means Committee, which could translate into fewer delays in getting teacher licenses, and better oversight of them.

Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction, told lawmakers one employee probably would be assigned to the teacher licensing office in Las Vegas - doubling the number of people responsible for reviewing background checks and disciplinary files.

The department's operations came under scrutiny after a legislative audit cited its lack of a specific policy or system for tracking criminal cases involving educators. Additionally, there was often significant lag time between a teacher's criminal conviction and the mandatory Board of Education hearing to revoke the individual's license.

The extra personnel in Las Vegas will be particularly helpful if Assembly Bill 313, which will be heard Wednesday by the Senate Human Resources and Education Committee, advances.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, would require local school districts and charter schools to report the arrests of licensed personnel to the state Education Department, which in turn would be responsible for tracking the criminal case and its outcome.

If the state board does not find evidence to support suspending or revoking an educator's license, the separate criminal file would not be made part of the individual's permanent employment record.

The Clark County School Board's commitment to music education has been honored by the National Association of School Boards and VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

This is the first time Clark County has won the national award for "distinguished support of music education," given annually to one school board each year since 2004.

The School District's choirs, orchestras, bands and choral groups regularly take the top prize in national interscholastic competitions.

"I am grateful to the music educators who make music come alive for our students," Clark County School Board member Shirley Barber said. She accepted the award last month at the National School Boards Association conference in San Francisco .