Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

CCSD inches closer to reopening campuses for some students

CCSD Board Meeting Addresses Covid-19

Yasmina Chavez

Clark County Schools Superintendent Jesus Jara listens to an assembled team of district professionals speak on COVID-19 during a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, March 12, 2020.

Updated Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 | 1:43 p.m.

Principals in the Clark County School District will be tasked with creating individual site plans to reopen their schools for in-person learning after months of closures because of the pandemic. If all goes as planned, school could return in some form by late February or early March, Superintendent Jesus Jara said Friday.

The Clark County School Board voted unanimously Thursday to approve a recommendation to allow the principals to formulate a plan, but didn’t give a timeline for them to submit details. Also, no timeline was established as to when students, who have been learning virtually since last March, would return.

“They did plans for graduation ceremonies, they’ve done plans for PSAT testing. So we’re very confident in their abilities to do that,” Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, deputy superintendent of CCSD, said of giving principals control over safety protocols for in person-learning, which would be optional for staff, students and families.

John Anzalone, principal of Sierra Vista High School, said he’ll be waiting on more direction but was eager to begin planning. “I will be meeting with my team ASAP to start brainstorming,” he said.

Katie Williams, a newly elected School Board member, made the motion to approve the plan to give principals more control.

“It’s been very hard for a lot of students, teachers and parents and I think that it’s important to eventually move toward the goal of reopening our schools,” Williams said. “... Every school is set up different and every school has a different type of population and I think it’s just important to let them start working toward that goal.”

It’s an important step in returning students back to the classroom — and coming at a critical time.

CCSD’s recommendation was based on academic challenges and ongoing mental health risks for students, including failing ‘F’ grades doubling this year in comparison to last. More than 90% of schools assigned more F’s for fall semester 2020 that was conducted virtually than they did last year.

Larson-Mitchell said 11% of students who failed in the fall of 2020 had A’s and B’s in the fall of 2019.

“I have hope that it will be a safe way to help the kids who need the most help right now,” said Linda Cavazos, the board president.

The board also approved a recommendation to return small groups of at-risk students for face-to-face instruction on a voluntary basis, although no timeline has been established. Jara stressed that they are dealing with more than a health crisis — it’s also an academic and emotional crisis.

Of course, this isn’t the first time CCSD officials have tried to bring students back. There were talks last summer before the new school year began and again in November. But those proposals didn’t go far as the coronavirus positivity rate spiked — it’s still raging, with more than 16,000 cases statewide over the past seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the narrative is slightly different this time, as teachers are eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine, and the teacher unions and district appear to be in agreement on return-safety plans.

CCSD is hopeful that its teachers will start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month with eyes on a return to in-person learning, Jara said Friday.

The School District’s plan prioritizes preschool to third grade teachers to get the vaccine first.

“Don’t hold me to it, but a goal with the vaccine and everything, if we can get folks in at the end of February, early March, that’s a good target,” he said.