Board Meeting 1

Running head: CCSD BOARD MEETING SUMMARY

Clark County Board Meeting Summary

Sarah Ashworth

College of Southern Nevada

November 30, 2016

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Board Meeting Summary

In the regular board meeting held on November 10, 2016 there were about six agenda items

discussed and about a dozen community speakers on certain subjects. The meeting began with

opening statements by the president of the trustees and then she went on to open the floor to the

public whom wanted to speak of matters they felt needed addressing. These people come in to

shed some light and share their viewpoints on current county issues. No decisions are made at that

time but records made on the 2 minute speeches on the matter. One of the first things brought up

by a community member and teacher of a local school called Freemont. It was mentioned that the

school may be closed due to lack of funding. He made a point to explain that because of the

zoning their school mainly had minority and poverty stricken children. This issue reminds me of

the discriminatory cases we have read about. He is worried that the school was not receiving the

correct amount of funding when they made such a difference in each child life. Another resident

spoke out about his song being denied the ability to go to the restroom when he requested to. In

result of the refusal he had an accident. In the board meeting he brought to the trustees attention

that this is not uncommon and he seeks to educate teachers in how the refusal is against the

students’ rights. This is very similar to things we have read in our book about students’ rights and

privileges.

After the community had expressed those concerns they moved on to discuss further

training on principals and their staff, They brought to attention a website on creating and joining

parent organizations that has been approved upon. There is a basic tutorial on how to access the

information and where to click to get to the correct webpages. It is all done in the room and can

be viewed by anyone for reference. Continuing onto another agenda item the board of trustees

briefly spoke about the possibility of outside companies sponsoring charter schools. They

expressed their interest and concern on the possibility of said companies renaming their sponsored
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schools. In the concern of special education, the board expressed concerts about an additional

staff day needed and when to implement it. One of the proposed days was with winter or spring

break but it was discussed that doing so would make the breaks so long that they felt that special

education students may suffer most from prolong exposure away from the school environment.

They went into finding better days to add this staff day for all the student body and based off

public feedback.

The president of the board went on a bit of a speech discussing how the board of trustees

has no type of agenda for or against any motion as they work based off facts and what would be

best for the students, staff, and parents. It was brought up that the trustees may have biased

opinions or that they work solely for the government and their benefit. Again, the president

assured the public that this was not the case by any means,

With this we grow closer to the end of the meeting. They take a few moments to discuss the

funding formulas for the school districts that, as we have read, are typically calculated based off of

the zoned residents income and housing. There was light discussion on the possibility of changing

the current formula to better fit the Clark County School District. For some it can be construed as

discrimination based off income and quite possibly race. After the board had discussed the current

agenda needs they devised what would be discussed next meeting and opened the floor one last

time for closing statements or other concerns that may not have fell under one of the agenda items

of the day. In their statement another teacher had proposed that the district redraw the zoning for

the schools to help alleviate the overflow of some schools to the others that seem to be running

under capacity. With the end of the open floor they took to a vote to end the meeting and it

adjourned until the next scheduled meeting to further discuss the remaining agenda tiems.
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References

Clark County School District (2016, November 10) Regular Board Meeting.
Retrieved from http://tv.ccsd.net/watch?v=5Rg1PcbnJUEi

Underwood, J., & Webb, L. D. (2006). School law for teachers: Concepts and applications.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall