Search firm recommends CCSD delay choosing new superintendent

The search firm helping the Clark County School District board find a new superintendent recommends delaying the selection by up to six months because of the complicated convergent timing of a board member’s resignation, the impending election that could replace a majority of members and the upcoming legislative session.

Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates proposed three new timelines ahead of its next regular update on the search when the board meets Thursday. The proposal bumps the new superintendent’s selection from October to February, March or April; HYA recommends the board hold off on approving a contract until March 27, 2025, and planning an actual start date even later.

This “is advantageous as it provides the newly elected board time for orientation and board governance training, including creating a positive and cohesive board dynamic, while still keeping the selection process as early as possible,” HYA wrote in supporting material attached to Thursday’s agenda.

Board membership changes give both the community and job applicants pause, HYA said. These changes were both expected with four of the seven voting seats up for reelection and only one incumbent seeking reelection, and abrupt, with the resignation of former member Katie Williams before the planned selection. Williams resigned earlier this month after an investigation determined that she no longer lives in Nevada.

“Candidates are ‘interviewing' the board as much as the trustees are interviewing the candidates,” HYA said. “Candidates are concerned that the newly elected board (potentially 3-4 members) would not have been part of the superintendent selection decision-making process.”

Also, the Nevada Legislature reconvenes in late February and will be in session for about four months. The search firm recommends that the new superintendent not start until after the session has wrapped in June “to allow legislators to focus on the session and to preserve the search process, including the transition phase.”

The March selection option proposes moving candidate interviews to February and March. It also suggests that the board take optional “board governance training” from HYA throughout January for an added fee. That fee was not listed; a separate proposal would be provided, the firm said.

The firm is helping the school board find a permanent replacement for former Superintendent Jesus Jara, who resigned in February. If Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell stays in the position until the next permanent chief starts, she will have served as interim for more than a year.

The board oversees the superintendent as its only direct employee.

If the board sticks to its original timeline, it will select a permanent superintendent Oct. 30. That’s also the day it might appoint an interim member to fill the remainder of Williams’ term.

Thursday is also when the board will begin discussing how to replace the former representative of District B, which includes urban and rural northern and northwestern reaches of the valley.

Assuming all goes according to the timeline suggested in agenda materials for Thursday’s meeting, CCSD will advertise the vacancy in newspapers Sunday and Oct. 6, with an application deadline of Oct. 18. Copies of applications will be posted online on Oct. 22 and public oral interviews with the remaining six members of the board will take place on Oct. 30. The appointee would be selected on the same day as the interviews.

Williams, who was sworn in in 2021, resigned from her position on Sept. 11, hours after the Clark County district attorney’s office filed a court petition to have her seat declared vacant after determining that Williams had moved out of state. Her term expires at the end of the year, meaning that the appointee will only attend four planned regular and work session meetings plus any special meetings.

Thursday’s meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the board room at 2832 E. Flamingo Road in Las Vegas.