Running Head: ARTIFACT #1 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING ASSIGNMENT 1

School Board Meeting

February 6, 2018

EDU 210

Cecilia Noorda

Dr. Warby
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I watched a school board meeting from February 8th, 2018. The board meeting starts off

with pledging the flag and saying a prayer. In one of the chapters of our textbook, we learned

about student led prayer in class. As the board also led a prayer, it seems that this does not

violate the establishment clause. During this board meeting, there is also a public comment

period. During this period speakers are allowed to speak for up to 2 minutes about a subject

concerning them. We also learned in our textbook that parents are legally allowed to have a say

in education, and this is one example of how parents can have a say. Quite a few speakers were

actually concerned parents or concerned teachers.

Elena Rodriquez was one of the speakers, and she spoke about how she believes

administrators should not be in control of the budget. She says this while providing many

examples and facts to back up her statements. For example, she tells the Board that the Assistant

Superintendent of Budget and Finance position requirements were lowered, when they should

not have been. As she states, the requirements are two years of teaching experience and three

years as administrator. However, this position is critical, and she believes the position should be

harder to get into, requiring a degree in either budget or financing.

Another speaker was Steve Brown. He spoke more freely and was not as structured with

his speech as Elena Rodriquez was. He was also easier to relate to than Elena Rodriquez. Steven

Brown started off by informing the school board that Clark County School District is ranked 51

in the country, nearly the very bottom. He repeatedly says that at every meeting this is brought

up, yet nothing changes. Everything continues the same way. He points out the budget crisis that

our district is currently experiencing. The admins get a majority of the money, taking away from

teachers and support staff. Custodians are working 4.9 hours a day so that they do not have to be

given benefits. Schools don’t have the funding they need for basic technology, some schools go
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without extra curriculars like choir, or football or art classes. All the money is going to admins

and consultants, but the students are the one that suffer the most.

The next speaker is Shawn Vincent, a single father of two boys. He is also a libertarian,

just like Steve Brown. He tells a story about growing up in a small town in Georgia. He informs

the board that while growing up, electives is what got him through school. He didn’t enjoy

subjects like math and history, but what he learned in his elective classes made him more

efficient in his core classes. He explains how he loved to cook, and home ec. taught him how to

mix together different amounts of ingredients, which helped him in math more. Football taught

him how to be responsible, communicative, and a team player. He stresses that electives are so

important for young children, because it allows them to have opportunities that they may never

have gotten outside of school. He ends his speech by saying that electives need to come back and

come back stronger than before.

Another important speaker is Greg Lumpner. Greg is a libertarian as well, and he brings

out the math to point out the deficit when it comes to Clark County School Districts funding and

budgeting. He points out that for 2017, Clark County spends the least per pupil out of the 5

biggest schools districts. This includes New York City, L.A, Chicago, and Miami. However,

when looking at the school rankings of those other districts, they are doing much better per dollar

in funding. He uses the example of Miami, which funding per student is $9, 926. Our funding per

student is $9,623, which is only a few dollars difference. However, Miami has more charter and

magnet schools and more schools with electives for their students than Clark County does. He

ends his argument with one question for the school board: “Are we paying attention to how with

the same funding as Clark County, so many other schools districts are doing better off than we

are and giving the students what they need to succeed?”

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Lastly, Katerine Lacy, talks about Knudson School, as an experienced math teacher.

Knudson, a magnet school, has a high rate of parent engagement. Lacy talks about how her

school has a high rate of magnet applications, but unfortunately only has 600 seats available. Of

those 600 seats, they are mostly taken by students that live in the immediate to nearby area. Most

of those students get to school by bussing. However, not every student gets a chance to go to this

school, and she offers a solution. Her solution does not get to be presented as she runs out of

time, but she does seem hopeful that this solution can not only expand to other schools but can

also help out with the budget deficit here at Clark County School District.

After watching an hour of this board meeting and listening to many different talk about

many different subjects, it reminded me a lot of what we’ve learned in this class. For example, it

reminded me a lot of what we learned about in chapter 2, “Employment and Tenure”. In this

chapter we learned that teachers are higher on one-year contracts. The contract will include all

the duties and responsibilities of the teachers, and if the teacher does not follow said duties and

responsibilities, the teacher can be terminated. These duties can include supervision of field trips,

playground, study halls, bus, and cafeteria duty. Almost this whole board meeting was about how

CCSD has a low budget deficit, and it reminded me of said duties that teachers already have on

top of teaching students and getting them to thrive. My question is, will teachers contracts

become lengthier and larger? Will teachers now how to start bussing students, performing

janitorial duties, and other tasks that are not related to education? Will that fix the budget? What

will it take for our children to get the education they need, and our teachers and staff the support

they deserve?
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References

Ccsd. (n.d.). Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://ccsd.eduvision.tv/default.aspx

School Law for Teachers: Concepts and Applications, Julie Underwood and L. Dean Webb.

ISBN 0-13-119242-6