Monday, May 20, 2013 | 10:27 p.m.
Pat Skorkowsky
The Clark County School Board delayed its vote on conducting a national superintendent search after a 4 1/2-hour special meeting Monday, postponing its decision until Tuesday evening.
Since early April, the Clark County School District has conducted more than a dozen town-hall meetings to seek public input from constituents about the superintendent search process. An online survey of 1,348 people — mainly teachers — and comments from some 400 town hall participants offered split and often contradictory opinions on whether the School Board should hire locally or nationally.
About half of online and town-hall survey respondents thought that the next superintendent should be restricted to local applicants. District officials acknowledged the surveys were "unscientific," because the district did not survey a random sample of the more than 2 million Clark County area residents.
For several hours, the School Board heard from dozens of community members who argued for and against a national search to find Superintendent Dwight Jones' replacement. Jones abruptly resigned in March, citing personal reasons.
Teachers and union members overwhelmingly called for a local search, urging the board to hire interim Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky and saving the district about $32,500 for a search firm.
Business leaders pushed for a national search, arguing it doesn't preclude local candidates from applying and would help the district find the best talent from across the country.
The meeting was attended by notable Las Vegas figures, such as former first lady Sandy Miller — who advocated for hiring Skorkowsky — and state School Board President Elaine Wynn — who is a vocal proponent for a national search. Two former School Board members also attended, but had divergent opinions. Jose Solorio urged board members to choose Skorkowsky; John Cole pushed for a national search.
After crossing a 10 p.m. deadline, School Board President Carolyn Edwards recessed the meeting until Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The board is expected to vote on whether to hire Omaha-based search firm McPherson and Jacobson.
The School Board has vacillated several times over whether to conduct a national search for the superintendent of the nation's fifth-largest school district, which enrolls more than 311,000 students.
On March 14, the board voted 6-1 to begin contract negotiations with McPherson and Jacobson, the same firm that brought Jones to the district in 2010. However, due to intense community pressure to hire locally, the board postponed approving the contract in April, deciding to wait two months to gather public input.
Check back at LasVegasSun.com Tuesday evening for live updates. Check Paul Takahashi's Twitter feed for the latest developments.
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