IMPACT

Carrie Kaufman talked with Akiko Cooks and her son Corey, who was one of the high schoolers targeted for assassination at Arbor View High School in 2019. She also talked with Jenna Roberts and her daughter Bella, who were part of a coalition that helped pass a CCSD gender diversity policy in 2018.

Bailey Middle School got an answer from CCSD CFO Jason Goudie about why they have almost $400,000 less in their budget. And it's not a good one.

Carrie Kaufman talks to Nevada Current reporter Michael Lyle about the housing and criminal justice bills he's seeing come up in the 2021 Nevada Legislative Session. It's a pretty progressive session, making small changes with big impacts.

Wherein Chris G takes on Nicole Cannizzaro, CCSD, challenges Legislative Dems to put their money where their mouth is, and progressives to focus on the boring organizational stuff and offers training for both Republicans and Democrats for free. 

We are also joined by Leisa Moseley, who was the political director for the 2020 Bernie campaign, and Dr. Zaffar Iqbal, who is now the 2nd vice chair of the NV Dems. 

But honestly, folks, this is a Chris G interview.

Pahrump resident Sara Walker jumped in last March and started making masks. Carrie checks in with her again to see how her year has been. Short answer... not that great. But she's still giving back.

Two bills are making their way through the Assembly right now that will have a big impact on how we handle traffic violations.

AB116, introduced by District 10 Assemblywoman Rochelle Wwyn, would make traffic violations - and their attendant fees - a civil rather than a criminal violation. That means if people don’t pay their fees, government entities in Nevada cannot put them in jail.

AB151, sponsored by District 16 freshman Assemblywoman Cecilia Gonzalez, would make it against the law to take someone’s driver’s license away for unpaid traffic fines.

Thousands of people a year end up in jail because they can’t afford to pay their fees, or have their license suspended but still must get to work. This often means loss of job, loss of homes, loss of residency status. All for making a right turn on red when they weren’t supposed to.

Back in October - you know, when we had nothing to do and weren’t stressing about the future of the free world - Nathan Trenholm and Justin White filed a lawsuit against the Clark County School District.

Trenholm and White are the proprietors of Data Insight Partners, which contracts with school organizational teams - SOTs - to provide data to admin, teachers, students and parents in over 35 schools.

Data Insight Partners started after the passage of AB469 - commonly known as the reorganization law - or “reorg” for short.

The reorg created autonomous school zones and was supposed to create a “marketplace” whereby schools could “buy” services that they needed from the central district. For instance, everyone needs maintenance, which the District provides. So a line item is taken out of each school’s budget for maintenance. If a school wanted to hire an extra maintenance person for special events, they could - out of their own budget.

They could also buy services from outside vendors. Venders like… Data Insight Partners.

I’ve talked with about half a dozen principals who all say things like, “Their data dashboards provides the school they partner with the ability to get really granular.”

Or Data Insight software allows their teachers to “get into the weeds”

But this fall, the Clark County School District forced schools to use THEIR data software. Their newly created data software. Which looks like a clone of Data Insight Partners’ software. Except… it doesn’t work as well and isn’t reliable.

One principal told me, “It’s just a smidge better than spreadsheets.”

Oops.

Carrie talks with Nathan Trenholm and Justing White about their legal complaint against the Clark County School District, as well as Leisa Moseley and Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen about decriminalizing traffic tickets. But first... we check in with a former guest in Pahrump who has dedicated this last year to helping people in the pandemic, but who has lost a lot.

Carrie talks to Elisa Cafferata, the new director of the Dept. of Employment and Rehabilitation about how real unemployment and fraud crippled DETR's ability to react to the pandemic.

Attorney Daniel Stewart with Hutchison and Steffen explains the lawsuits filed in Nevada by the Trump campaign on the day of and in the aftermath of the election.