The Clark County School District is in the midst of a big change: reorganization.
The district, with more than 320,000 students, is breaking itself into smaller pieces with the hopes that more autonomy for schools will lead to more student success.
How is the process going so far?
"As well as we can in the time we've been given," Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky told State of Nevada.
The reorganization was just one topic in a wide-ranging conversation the superintendent had with Nevada Public Radio. The reorganization allows principals, teachers and parents to create School Organization Teams. They'll budget for individual schools and make key decisions about how the school will be run.
"I think the most important part is that schools, and the teams with schools, are making decisions about their specific population," Skorkowsky said.
He said the reorganization plan has already been implemented in the district's central office.
One of the biggest challenges for Clark County schools, as far as Skorkowsky is concerned, is how education funding is divided in Nevada. It is still based on the Nevada Plan, created in 1967. It spreads tax revenue for education across the state.
"We need to change that funding plan, so that we -- as 74 percent of the state population -- are getting the 74 percent of our funding and not sending it out to other counties across the state to supplement their income," the superintendent said.
Another problem with funding, according to Skorkowsky, is the property tax cap. Put into place during the housing boom of the early 2000s as housing prices and property taxes began to soar as a way to save people money, local governments and school districts saw a dramatic drop in revenue as housing prices bottomed out during the Great Recession. Skorkowsky couldn't say for sure how much money the district lost, but he estimated it was $350 million since the cap was put into place.
"We need property tax reform," he said. "We need it to happen this next session."
The money for schools doesn't just go for classroom instruction, but also for "wraparound" services for students. Those can include food, clothing and any resource they may need, Skorkowsky said. He said if the school can provide the basic needs, then kids no longer have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or where they're going to sleep, but can instead focus on what they're learning in class.
While the superintendent would like to help every student in need, he says many of the problems families face are community problems that can only be fixed with a community effort.
He said a successful school district doesn't just make sure its students graduate from high school with the skills to either go to college or into a career, but that a school should also be a source of pride and a community hub.
"I think the other factor that is so important is the community around the school," Skorkowsky said. "If parents feel safe, and they feel that they are members of that school community, then that makes a good school system."
He said parent need to know what their child's academic level is and what they can do to improve it.
Skorkowsky believes that while it is important to measure a child's proficiency, keeping an eye on measurements and not on the student is not wise.
"Sometimes we get caught up so much in the numbers that we don't take it into effect that students are people," he said. "They are individuals -- sometimes we measure them as we would a product coming out of a factory."
He said in the coming school year, CCSD needs to focus on the lowest performing students, like students who are English language learners or those on free and reduced lunch programs, to get their proficiency numbers up.
"If we don't focus in on our largest population that is non-proficient, then we are not going to ever increase the overall proficiency of our students," he said.
Pat Skorkowsky, superintendent, Clark County School District
