Officials hope to have CCSD overhaul plan finalized by end of summer

By Ian Whitaker

Friday, July 1, 2016 | 6:15 p.m.

Lawmakers working to reorganize the Clark County School District could approve a final plan by the end of August.

Republican state Sen. Michael Roberson, who chairs a nine-member committee that voted today to advance a preliminary reorganization plan to an agenda of several public hearings later this summer, committed to the deadline after what has become an exhaustive, months-long process.

“It’s important we move forward,” Roberson said. “It’s my hope that we will be able to pass a final plan by the end of this summer.”

The current plan, which is being developed by former Edmonton, Alberta, Superintendent Michael Strembitsky, would flip the fifth-largest school district virtually upside down, putting principals and staff at the forefront of decision making with the district’s central office taking a supporting role.

In the 1980s, Strembitsky became famous in education circles for pioneering “empowerment schools,” where school staff have greater control over day-to-day operations. His plan, which he is being paid $150,000 to develop, would apply that concept to the school district writ large. CCSD previously flirted with the model in 2007, though it fizzled out after funding dried up during the recession.

However, a number of concerns are still left to be worked out in the current plan, a fact that continues to cause anxiety among some education insiders.

Chief among them is the amount of money the district will need to train thousands of administrators, teachers, support staff and principals on an entirely new system. Neither the committee nor the school district has an estimate of how much it will cost.

“I think there should be a sense of urgency,” said John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, the local teachers union. “I don’t think we can go any further … without being crystal clear about how much money we’re talking about.”

In a version of his plan earlier this week, Strembitsky said the reorganization would come with “considerable cost,” though he has since revised it, claiming the total costs are “not fully understood at this time.” At the outset of the process, Roberson claimed the reorganization would be “fiscally neutral.”

The uncertainty over implementation costs are largely due to the lack of detail in Strembitsky’s current plan.

Issues still left to be worked out in the coming months include how individual schools and a central office would cooperate to provide busing, large-scale services such as those for special needs students and English-language-learners.

Strembitsky’s plan calls for all 357 CCSD schools to become individual “school precincts,” with each operating a committee made up of teachers, staff and parents with the ability to influence how the school is run.

If the plan is approved, all schools will have to transition to the new system in time for the 2017-18 school year.

Roberson vowed all concerns would be worked out in the coming months.

“This process is a long way from being over,” he said.