LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Last month, the Clark County School District hired its first woman and Asian American as superintendent for the nation’s fifth-largest school district.
CCSD Superintendent Jhone Ebert spoke to 8 News Now about how her life experiences have made her a better leader.
“You know I pinch myself. I know a lot of people say that,” Ebert said on Apr. 10.
The school district’s board of trustees selected her in March in a unanimous vote and then in April both sides reached a deal on a four-year, $385,000 contract.
Ebert is from Southern California and shared her rags-to-riches story with trustees in February when she was interviewing for the superintendent job.
“My mom was 18 when I was born. My sister was born 18 months later. And then my father left us 18 months after that,” Ebert told the board on Feb. 25.
“When you think about a 21-year-old with two kids on our own, she leaned in on services that were made available,” Ebert continued. “She made sure that we went out. We went to free cultural events, made sure that we went to the museum, the Los Angeles Museum of Art, and that we were exposed to the community.”
Ebert leads a district where 70% of schools are Title 1, which means they serve low-income students. Ebert grew up in poverty and her family is Filipino and Hawaiian. Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Hawaiians-Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans represent about 81% of CCSD students.
CCSD is a different district compared to when Ebert first began in 1990 at Von Tobel Middle School as a math teacher.
“We are an extremely diverse school district. When I started, it was not diverse. At that time, probably 70, 80% white identified and then all the other races. Now, we know that’s completely flipped. What’s happened in our community happened so very fast,” she said.
CCSD students come from 130 different countries and speak more than 100 languages.
“We need to understand those things about each other, so that we can meet each other where we’re at,” Ebert said.
Ebert told 8 News Now she sees strengths in differences. She spent the last six years as state superintendent of public instruction.
