Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom attends a swearing in ceremony at the Clark County Government Center, Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.
Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
More on CCSD
If you want to know how Community Education Advisory Boards can work, look toward Moapa Valley.
Moapa Valley has for decades had a grassroots board of local parent, school and civic leaders to bridge what one of its members calls “the CCSD service gap” with the rural community, which sits about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.
So when the Clark County Commission recently adopted an ordinance to guide residents of unincorporated Clark County in forming similar local boards, Moapa — which maintains its board without direction from the county comission or Clark County School District — weighed in on its board’s value.
“CCSD has not always been able to recognize or provide the services and support that our rural area has desperately needed,” Moapa Valley board member Dianna Walker told the commission, which on Jan. 3 approved the framework to eventually appoint boards throughout the county. “(We) can rapidly identify local or community needs and institute realtime support and assistance directly to the schools and students instead of resources being filtered through time-consuming bureaucratic processes. Resources go right where they are needed, when they are needed.”
The ordinance, introduced by Commissioner Tick Segerblom, provides a general structure for the commission to eventually fill boards like Moapa’s in any parts of the county outside of the incorporated city boundaries of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and Mesquite but does not require or directly establish any. Multiple boards can exist in commissioners’ districts.
It passed on an unanimous vote.
The 2017 state law decentralizing power in the Clark County School District allowed local governments throughout the county to organize the boards, but only a few have formed: municipal boards in Henderson, Mesquite and North Las Vegas.
The Moapa Valley board was far ahead of the curve. And it appears to have a good relationship with Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, whose district includes the small, close-knit towns of Moapa, Overton and Logandale.
Kirkpatrick said she would “much rather hear from these committees than the report that we get every quarter” from top CCSD administrators — a progress report that the reorganization law mandates.
Walker, who has been on the Moapa Valley board for 10 years, said the group partnered with UNR Extension-4H, Moapa Valley Rotary, Clark County Parks and Recreation, parents and administrators from the area’s four schools to meet the community’s needs.
For example, when the pandemic forced schools into distance and hybrid learning in 2020 and 2021, the board organized free tutoring for students and help for parents to navigate online schooling.
Community education boards created through the county would meet at least quarterly. They would only address the needs of CCSD schools.
School police officer honored
The nationwide nonprofit Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence (LEAD) has named CCSD Police Capt. Robert Mayer its “Captain of the Year” for his work growing LEAD in Las Vegas-area schools.
“We congratulate Capt. Mayer and the CCSDPD on their outstanding work implementing LEAD in Clark County,” Nick DeMauro, LEAD’s chief executive, said in a press release. “We commend him on recognizing the effectiveness and strength of the program in terms of educating kids on the value of drug and violence prevention, and on his hard work getting schools in Clark County to begin teaching LEAD.”
This fall, Mayer started taking a group of students in the program to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the annual South Point 400 NASCAR race. He has helped bring the LEAD program to almost 1,000 sixth-graders at several CCSD middle schools, and it is now being considered for local high schools, the organization said.
Teens sought for pollinator program
Local teens can apply to become a “Nevada 4-H pollinator ambassador” through a program being launched by UNR Extension.
What do pollinator ambassadors do? They develop habitats for pollinators. What are pollinators? Animals, primarily insects, that fertilize plants by moving pollen grains containing male genetic material from one plant to the female parts of another. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds are some familiar pollinators.
UNR Extension is running the program in partnership with the National 4-H Council and Corteva Agriscience. Teens ages 14-19 from across Nevada can apply. They need not be a current 4-H member.
The Nevada 4-H Pollinator Ambassador Program is an 11-month commitment that includes online and in-person training related to pollinators and pollinator habitats, as well as how to provide educational outreach to other audiences across the state. About 10 ambassadors will be chosen, and at least six of them will have an opportunity to attend the National 4-H Youth Summit in March in Washington, D.C.
The link to the application is bit.ly/3ZpJWKU. Applications must be emailed or postmarked by Jan. 13.
