Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Former teacher Linda Cavazos fills vacancy on CCSD board

Linda Cavazos

Courtesy of CCSD

Linda Cavazos is sworn in as a Clark County School District trustee on Aug. 17, 2017. She was appointed to fill the remainder of Erin Cranor’s term, which expires in 2018.

Former teacher Linda Cavazos has joined the Clark County School District board of trustees to fill the spot vacated by Erin Cranor.

Cavazos was appointed to represent District G in a unanimous vote Thursday after the board interviewed about a dozen candidates. Several speakers asked the board to keep diversity in mind when making the decision. The board asked candidates about their experiences facilitating community discussions on race and education achievement disparities.

Cavazos is a part-time therapist who has taught Head Start, middle school and high school. She spent nine years as an adjunct faculty member at UNLV supervising student teachers. She said she’s facilitated group discussions geared toward minorities.

“The most important factor that I noticed that made for ... a successful discussion on racial diversity and concerns was did the participants feel like they were being listened to or did they feel like they were being kind of checked off on a box and set off to the side,” Cavazos said.

She said the reorganization of the school district is putting the focus on schools, and that communication is key to making the new structure successful.

“For this reorg plan to be successful, effective communication among the different sites, the schools and the principals with the district is going to be vitally important,” she said.

If there are “bumps in the road” implementing the reorganization plan at some schools, they should look to other schools where reorganization is working, Cavazos said.

The board received 13 applications for the spot, and Trustee Linda Young said it was a competitive field of candidates.

“This is a really deep bench,” she said before the board voted.

Cranor announced her resignation in June to attend law school at Brigham Young University.

Cavazos said she plans to run to keep the seat in 2018.