LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The 11 members of the Clark County School District Board of Trustees questioned the three finalists for the superintendent job in the last round of interviews.
Jhone Ebert, Ben Shuldiner, and Jesse Welsh gave their final pitch to trustees Tuesday night at a special school meeting, where each candidate participated in a 45-minute question-and-answer session.
Ebert started the night. She is the current State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the first question a trustee asked her was about special education.
“We know that we have a shortage with special education educators, special education bus drivers, paraprofessionals. The whole adult pipeline is short in that area. So number one, which the school district has already done this last school year, is providing the additional stipend,” Ebert said.
8 News Now obtained an email CCSD sent to staff members notifying them that the state money that was used as a stipend, which Ebert mentioned, is running out. Ebert said she’d lobby lawmakers for more money.
“We have a hundred more positions filled this year,” Ebert said.
Shuldiner is the superintendent of the Lansing School District in Michigan.
When a trustee asked Shuldiner about his vision for CCSD, he said he’d focus on goals. The first would be increasing the current graduation rate of 81%.
“There’s no reason why you’re not at 85% in the next year or two. And I think you can get to 90% in about two and a half, three years. The other one is the 120 One Star Schools. You have to address that. If a third of the schools are at One Star, that means a lot of children aren’t being served,” Shuldiner said.
Welsh is the chief executive officer of Nevada State High School, a charter school based in Henderson.
On the day the U.S. Department of Education announced it was laying off 1,300 employees, a trustee asked Welsh what he would do if federal funds were eliminated.
“I think we need to be proactive and make sure we have some plans in our back pocket should there be a disruption, or a termination of federal funding. Again, I would hope that does not occur. But we need to be prepared for that, especially given some of the things that are happening right now in Washington,” Welsh said.
Out of the three superintendent candidates, Shuldiner is the only one without connections to CCSD.
Towards the end of Tuesday’s meeting, there was tension among trustees over a survey from the Global Economic Alliance that was included in the school board’s reference material.
The group is comprised of several Las Vegas-based Chambers of Commerce. The survey outlined its pick for the best superintendent, which was Ben Shuldiner. But some trustees believed it should’ve been part of public comment, so they voted to remove it.
Trustees are scheduled to hire a superintendent Thursday during a regular school board meeting.
