The Board of School Trustees of the Clark County School District is currently heading up a search for a new School Superintendent. Their search could possibly culminate anytime from later in January through May or even June. The candidate list was narrowed to six finalist, and the school board was scheduled to commence interviewing finalist January 9, 2006. Board interviews of the finalist are scheduled to be televised live on Cox Cable Channel 96. Prior to candidate interviews, a special Superintendent Search edition of "Inside Education" was scheduled to air Wednesday, January 4th at 7:30 p.m. on KLVX-TV Channel 10. For this show, Inside Education interviewed all seven school board members who shared their personal and collective perspective on the Superintendent Search.

Board members say they consider selecting and hiring a new superintendent as one of the most important functions that they will undertake as elected members of the Board of School Trustees. Each of the seven board members represents a defined geographic area within Clark County.

The Clark County School District, or CCSD as it is commonly called, is the nation's fifth largest and fastest-growing school system. CCSD enrolls over 281,000 students and has over 300 schools, while employing more than 30,000 staff members including teachers, support staff and administrative employees.

In accordance with Nevada law, each county within the state constitutes its own kindergarten through 12th grade public school system. As a result, there are 17 school districts in Nevada. Clark County School District enrolls approximately 68 percent of all school-aged students in the state, in direct correlation to Clark County being the major population base for Nevada residents.

The school board has established the base salary for the next superintendent of schools at $290,000. The superintendent is considered a CEO and is charged by the school board with managing and overseeing the district. The superintendent reports directly to the school board who rates and evaluates the superintendent's performance on an annual basis.

The school district's annual operating budget is approximately $1.8 billion dollars, which is not excessive when broken down based on the number of students the district is responsible for educating. CCSD is also building more than 100 schools as part of a 10-year, $3.5 billion dollar School Building Program approved by voters in 1998.

In spite of its seeming wealth, CCSD is considered to be vastly underfunded in comparison to other school district and based on its mandate to educate all public school students who reside in Clark County. In fact, the district's per student expenditure is less than $5,000, making it the lowest funded allocation per student as compared to all other school districts in Nevada.

Clark County School District faces numerous challenges, not unlike large urban school districts across the nation. Promoting student achievement remains the district's major objective. In spite of its numerous challenges, there are notable instances each year of students who excel, score well on college-bound tests, and go on to prestigious Ivy League schools such as Princeton, Yale, Stanford and Harvard.

With ever-increasing graduation requirements, the district is being constantly challenged to assist average and below average students to do well enough in school to pass the state-mandated high school proficiency test—which is a graduation requirement for all students.

I've only scratched the surface in discussing the district in this article. It will be the mission of the next superintendent to effectively manage the school district's human and financial resources in an effective manner to ensure that all students get a good education, thus placing them in a position to become productive, taxpaying citizens who contribute to make this a better society for all of us.


Ray E. Willis
Executive Producer/Host
"Inside Education" TV Show
KLVX-TV—Channel 10
Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 6:00 a.m.