IMPACT of Legislative Education Agenda

58m · IMPACT · 17 Jan 20:17

The next Nevada legislative session starts Feb. 1, 2021, and education issues will be front and center.

Not only has the pandemic decimated education funding sources - which are heavily reliant on tourism - but a new funding formula was put in place during the 2019 session, and a funding commission has been looking at how to implement it.

I sat down with the two heads of the Senate Education Committee - chair Mo Denis and vice-chair Marilyn Dondero-Loop - to talk about what might be happening in their hearings over the winter and spring.

Some highlighted issues:

Carryover Funds: These are funds that individual schools, working with their School Organizational Teams, try to save over the school year. Some schools have a long-term goal, and have saved significant amounts of money. These funds stay only with the school, and are not controlled by the district. In the special sessions this summer, Supt. Jesus Jara attempted to change the law to allow the district to take carryover funds. Senator Dondero-Loop says she is up for a compromise, but she understands both sides. Senator Denis agrees, saying he wants to "find ways to reward and not punish" principals who have managed their money well. 

"When it comes to the reorg, for some schools it's been a great thing, for others it has not been as good," said Denis. "It depends on the leadership."

This conversation can be heard around the 19-minute mark.

Appointed School Boards: This has been an issue for a  number of years, but this year the official position of the Clark County School District is not to oppose it. Dondero-Loop said she believes there will be "some bills" coming forward to appoint school boards all over the state. She pointed out that the State Board of Education is partially appointed and partially elected, and it works well. 

"When you have a small group of seven people, it would be beneficial if we had somebody appointed who had some specific training in specific categories," said Dondero-Loop.

Denis isn't sure about appointing board members. He points out that the County Commission, which is elected, has a bigger staff and committees full of experts to look at specific things, like planning.

"With school boards I think we and do similar things," said Denis, so the board could have a subcommittee on finance that wouldn't be employees of the school district. He adds, "We need to have school trustees that represent the community."

Both Dondero-Loop and Denis agree that school trustees should be paid a living wage. Denis points out that being a trustee is a full-time job, and they only get paid about $9,000 a year.

Legislators, too, only get about $9,000 every two years for their full-time service. 

This conversation starts at the 23 minute mark.

"I believe there will probably be some bills that are coming forward"

Back to School: The issue, as Dondero-Loop points out, is that kids don't get COVID, teachers do. (High school age kids are also at higher risk.)

"You have to have enough adults to cover kids," said Dondero-Loop, without putting the health of the adults at risk.

2020: Dondero-Loop has seen CCSD take advantage of this pandemic to start to rethink how they teach. "I think it's a really exciting time to reinvent some things - seat time, mental health," Dondero-Loop said. "I do think if you are an educator... you recognize that" things need to change.

"When we look back at 2020, we are going to see some amazing things that caused us to look at things differently," said Denis. He notes that the Nevada Supterintendent of schools has created a task force to look at competency-based education, which would blur the line a bit on specific grades. But the biggest issue is that parents who want their children to be valedictorian don't want the competition taken away.

The episode IMPACT of Legislative Education Agenda from the podcast IMPACT has a duration of 58:45. It was first published 17 Jan 20:17. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.