Bill introduced to overhaul state Board of Education

By Cy Ryan

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY — The first of several bills to overhaul the state Board of Education appeared in the state Senate on Thursday.

The measure, SB-197, would replace the 10-member elective board with a combination of elected and appointed members.

Sen. Moises Denis, D-Las Vegas, whose education committee introduced the bill, said it was drafted by the former administration of Gov. Jim Gibbons. He said there will be other bills to change the governance of the public school system.

The bill would eliminate the Commission on Educational Excellence, the Commission on Educational Technology, the Council to Establish Academic Standards for Public Schools and the Statewide Council for the Coordination of the Regional Training Programs.

One duty of the new board, to be called the Nevada Commission K-12 Public Education, would be to revise the state plan to improve academic achievement.

The bills calls for the new board to be made up of one elective member from each of the state’s congressional districts and one appointee each from the governor, Senate majority leader and Assembly speaker.

There would be four non-voting members, with one coming from a county school board, one superintendent of schools, one representative from the Nevada System of Higher Education and one member representing students.

The state board, in its plan to boost the achievement of students, must set the goals for improving the proficiency results in core academic courses, increase the number of students enrolled in middle and junior high schools, improve the graduation rate and the scores of students who take a college entrance exam.