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By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Thursday, March 14, 2013 | 9:15 p.m.
Dwight Jones, the Clark County School Superintendent, is photographed in his office Thursday, January 20, 2011.
Sun coverage
The Clark County School Board will hire a search firm to conduct a national search for a new superintendent.
The issue: On Thursday morning, the School Board appointed Deputy Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky as the interim superintendent in the wake of Superintendent Dwight Jones' sudden resignation last week.
The seven-member board is now looking for a permanent superintendent replacement, a process that could take up to a year and upwards of $75,000 to complete.
After a nearly 12-hour day of discussions, the School Board chose to hire Omaha-based McPherson & Jacobson to look for its next superintendent.
The vote: 6-1, with School Board member Linda Young being the sole dissenting vote. Young wished the board would conduct a request for proposal to find a suitable search firm.
The impact: Under its contract, which needs to be negotiated, the search firm would return with no fewer than four superintendent candidate names. If the board is unhappy with all of the candidates, the firm would re-do the search for free. The firm would also conduct another search for free if the next superintendent leaves before two years of service.
The contract with McPherson & Jacobson is expected to be finalized on March 21.
In April 2010 — when the firm was hired to find Jones — the School Board paid $60,000 for an eight-month search, which yielded three candidates - one of whom dropped leaving Jones and another candidate. The cost included consultant fees, travel expenses and advertising for the position.
Ideally, the School Board would like to appoint a permanent superintendent by October to December.
•••
The School Board also tabled a spirited debate over Skorkowsky's compensation.
School Board members Carolyn Edwards and Linda Young wanted to raise Skorkowsky's current salary of $144,000 by up to 50 percent to $216,000. Jones was paid a base salary of $270,000.
School Board member Erin Cranor was hesitant on the pay raise in light of teacher pay cuts last month. A $72,000 raise would equate to one teaching position, she argued.
Many teachers union members attending the meeting seemed to support hiring Skorkowsky permanently and paying him the same salary as Jones.
It's rare to find loyalty these days. It's the nature of the beast in today's corporate world. These guys jump ship every few years for a new opportunity. Dwight Jones is no different. Was he ever in one district for more than a couple years? The problem here is you need a sustained commitment to implement his plan...for better or worse. Not to be as he gallops out of town.
There's something to be said for the 25 year employee who knows every nook and cranny that he presides over and has loyalty to starting and finishing the job.
It's NOT about the money, I assure you. Frankly, I do NOT want the JOB. BUTT, if and only if I am offered $450,000 a year plus some moving expenses for myself and my girlfriends and their pet giraffes and alligators would I even consider performing as well as the honorable leader Dwight Jones.
Nope, i would need at least this amount plus a huge chunk of change for a helper and a friend of the helper to maintain support and, to be honest, we just need the money, because it's likely the alligators will need extra care in the Las Vegas climate.
Honestly I DO NOT WANT the job, but I would take it and do, as i say, a signature Dwight Jones version of the same old las vegas song and dance routine you love to hear. Most powerful words in English language: "Pay To The order Of______"
Absolutely! Save on the costly search and hire Pat permanently. The salary Jones got should be sufficient. He knows the district very well and has the right interests in mind. We bring people in from the outside who think they can "manage" their way through our system. Since it is 100% a people business, there is no perfect answer and there never will be. People will still be writing on here and complaining in the year 2100 about our schools, but we'll still be doing what we've always done, which is the very best we can with the "inputs" to the system we are given. Pat is the man for the job. Quit wasting our money with searches and pretending we can find someone better. If the Board wants to continue the changes Jones was making, clearly Pat can do it since Jones had the confidence to hire him to be his deputy. Why a national search? Why?
The apparent cavalier disdain shown by both the school board and the dis-interested citizenry is reflected in this repetitive series of failed schools, dismal policies and a castaway careless disrespect for the value of learning, of gaining skill, self-confidence and real-world savvy.
Time was of the essence, but 'we haven't seen that kind of spirit here since 1869...'
Is anyone surprised at how we are treated, how we get screwed and screwed and are given short shrift and miserable outcomes and nobody blinks?
I would agree. Stop hiring these carpet baggers who leave as fast as they come in. Go with an internal hire and stop wasting more money with these out of state free agents who have a history of going for top dollar and then look for an exit.
Fixing this school district is a parental issue regardless. No white knight is going to come galloping in here and fix a 50% drop-out rate. All these guys do is put the cart before the horse. The horse is the family unit installing the values of education, commitment and support. Start there.
What the hell is the school board thinking? I'm sure there are plenty of people right in this district who are plenty capable of running the CCSD.
I'm especially ticked that they have no problem paying a pile of money for another search, while at the same time not having a problem breaking the contract with the teachers, taking away the educational raises they earned, that they are still paying for. No wonder morale is so low in this district. You screw the teachers every single time.
The only one on the board who appears to have the slightest amount of common sense is Linda Young. It's about time for teachers to say enough is enough. Put in just the amount of time required by the contract. Stop letting the school district walk all over you and the children.
Red flags used to pop up if your resume showed short term employment with several companies. It usually meant you jumped ship quite easily and therefore a company didn't want to invest time, training and know how into you when you were already altering your resume on the first day of work. In today's world, that same "job shopping" is considered "valuable, diversified experience". It usually comes back to haunt the employer. In this case it did.
hire somebody who wants to BREAK UP the entire school district into choice schools, voucher systems, and teach english math science geography self-reliance and independent thinking
not some democrat communist brainwash artist
better yet RECALL the entire school trustees
and REPEAL outdated mandatory education statutes
There should be a 'claw back' clause in the contract based on performance and completion of tasks. Failure to complete a hiring term or achieve specified goals would result in at least 30% or more of the salary, perks and benefits being returned to the public.
It will be mighty difficult to attract truly qualified superintendent candidates when Nevada FAILS for adequately and SUSTAINABLY FUND education and its infrastructure.
All that results is throwing money to individuals who will never be able to fully roll out and implement meaningful educational plans and reforms due to this perpetual funding problem.
Green Blessings and Peace,
Star
Bob, yours is the voice which the community clearly needed to hear to consider and to value.
How is it that wisdom has lost so much respect in Las Vegas, that this kind of shenanigan is allowed to go unaddressed, and that both the monies for and the direction of education in Southern Nevada are squandered when they are so preciously scarce?
It makes me think that most likely skulduggery is the root here. Dwight has connections to private education sources and has been funded through them before and perhaps even DURING his brief and failed stint here. Does the possibility of collusion ever enter the radar screen? collusion among FIRMS that pick and choose, firms that are ultimately positioned to direct success or failure, firms that cater to their support from the wealthy education hawks whose plan is to debunk public ed by moving money to private schools?
If so, well then I would have to say Bully for ole Jonesy and his boys! Look at the PROOF they left in their wake that public schools are FAILING, that private schools can save our bacon!
Go Dwight, Go!
Go NPRI, Go!
Go Heritage Foundation, Go!
Gorsh, does anybody think a guy would take a fall for a few hundred grand and leave a few hundred thousand kids with a worthless set of skills in a rapidly changing world - just so that one guy could take a pile of dough and maybe gobs more down the road?? Really? In Las Vegas??
Las Vegas Grand Opening/Going Out of Education Business Gala
"Welcome to Las Vegas, Dwight!"
"Thanks for the chance to serve. Alright, let's play musical chairs with the names, change the scores to stars and hire my friends."
"ok"
"Well here's my plan...uh, it's not gonna work, but uh... I will be resigning and leaving right away. Thanx"