GUEST
Carolyn Edwards, Clark County School Board President
BY MARIE ANDRUSEWICZ -- Clark County School Board president Carolyn Edwards said there were “compelling reasons” to install interim Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky in the job permanently. The move happened unexpectedly, Tuesday night, without first conducting a national search.
“The reality is when you don’t want to hit the reset button on the system, when what you want to do is pass the baton, you limit your pool of candidates if you do a national search, because most people who come in want to do their own thing,” says Edwards. “I feel very strongly that the work that Dwight Jones did is the right work, and we want to pass the baton. We need someone who knows what those pieces of work are.”
Edwards says that the only drawback in making the pick Tuesday night is that most of the public didn’t know that the selection was taking place.
On the other hand, says Edwards, “If you really wanted to know what we were doing, you should have been watching.” She points to two months of town hall meetings as providing ample opportunity for the public to offer input.
Edwards says that Skorkowsky, who began his career at the district as a first grade teacher, has a talent for motivating educators.
“He knows how to do that without discouraging or riling people,” says Edwards.
Despite touting Skorkowsky’s soft skills, Edwards knows the measure of his success will show up in the hard numbers.
“We’ll be looking at the data. The board will look at student achievement data, and if it goes backward, that’s a big alarm, and if it moves forward, that’s great.”