How new Clark County schools leader Jhone Ebert plans to run the district
Last week marked Jhone Ebert’s first as the superintendent of the Clark County School District (CCSD). Ebert spent it by touring schools, penning an open letter to the community and holding short one-on-one interviews with several reporters (including me!). Read below for more on her interview with The Indy.
It’s been a busy week for education news in Nevada, including U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s Friday visit to FuturEdge Charter Academy, a K-8 charter school in North Las Vegas that’s sponsored by the Clark County School District. Her visit — closed to the media — coincided with WWE’s WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas. McMahon was previously the company’s CEO (and occasional on-screen performer).
As a bit of counterprogramming, a group of union leaders and parents spoke out against the Trump administration’s push to eliminate the Department of Education during a Friday virtual press conference hosted by the Nevada State Democratic Party.
“The Department of Education plays a critical role in ensuring that students with specific needs are protected, fed and adequately supported,” Nevada State Education Association President Dawn Etcheverry said. “Eliminating it isn't just bad policy. It's a direct threat to the quality and accessibility of public education in Nevada.”
I want to hear from you! Send questions, comments or suggestions on what I should be covering to rocio@thenvindy.com.
News briefs
💵 Donation for new Owyhee school — The new Owhyee Combined School has received a $100,000 donation from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in Idaho to put toward its construction, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation said in a Tuesday statement.
It comes as the Nevada tribe is pushing a new bill this session, AB355, that would allow the state to match donations such as this one made for a tribal school.
The project hit a roadblock when the Elko County School District received no bids last year after contractors estimated the building cost exceeded the initial $64.5 million state appropriation, forcing the district to scale down the project. It finally began moving forward this year.
The tribe is also concerned about construction costs being driven up by inflation and tariffs on steel, lumber and other materials.
Construction on the new school is slated to begin this summer, and the school is expected to be completed by the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Notes from the Legislature
- AB217, which would prohibit public schools and their employees from granting access to school facilities or providing student information to immigration officials without a valid warrant, passed out of the state Assembly with bipartisan support on a 31-11 vote on Thursday and now heads to the Senate.
- The bill‘s passage comes amid rumors of increased immigration enforcement activity in Las Vegas.
- “As a mother, the idea that any child could be afraid to go to school because of who they are or where their family comes from breaks my heart,” said Assm. Cecelia González (D-Las Vegas), the bill’s sponsor. “AB217 is about giving our children a safe place to learn, grow, and thrive without the looming fear of immigration enforcement disrupting their lives.
SB444, which would require school districts to adopt cellphone limitation policies, passed out of the Senate in a unanimous vote Wednesday and is now headed to the Assembly.
School Spotlight
Q&A: Jhone Ebert starts her tenure as Clark County schools boss
Last week, Jhone Ebert reintroduced herself to the CCSD community under a new title: superintendent of the nation’s fifth-largest school district and the place where she started her career in education nearly four decades ago.
One of her first acts on the job was writing an open letter. In the letter and an accompanying video message, Ebert said she wanted to hear from the community on how the district can “get better at getting better” to support students' education. Her stated goals include focusing on academic achievement, rebuilding trust and restoring confidence in the district.
One of the issues that Ebert will have to tackle as CCSD’s superintendent is turning around years of low English and math proficiency rates that have yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
During a phone interview last Thursday, Ebert told The Nevada Independent that includes making sure students attend school and that students and their parents understand the importance of their involvement in their education.
The district’s chronic absenteeism rate, 31 percent, has been trending downward, but is still higher than than its pre-pandemic level of 22 percent. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of school days.
“If the students are not in school, they are not going to learn,” she said. “And so making sure that they see themselves coming to school, they know their school is a safe, learning, fun, joyous environment, is the first part of the equation.”
Ebert said she expects student proficiency rates to show improvement when the latest results are released in September based on encouraging preliminary data, a sign that 2023’s historic K-12 education funding increase is helping students.
In a previous interview, Ebert said she supports longer school days and even extending the school year. On Thursday, Ebert didn’t specify by how much she proposes extending the school day or when that would be implemented, but said the district currently has one of the shortest school days in the nation and compared it to other Nevada districts such as Douglas County. Texas has the longest minimum instructional hours per day, seven hours across all grade levels, while Utah has the lowest at four hours across all grade levels, according to 2018 federal data.
Under state law, school districts must provide a minimum of 180 days of instructional time. The minimum number of minutes per school day varies by grade level with a low of 120 minutes (2 hours) for kindergarteners to 330 minutes (5.5 hours) for students in grades 7-12. That’s similar to the minimum instructional time for middle and high school students in states such as New York, Georgia and Oregon.
Ebert pointed to CCSD schools that already have longer school hours and have seen an increase in student achievement.
“There's not a secret sauce there,” she said. “It's data that we can lean on that works.”
But it's unclear whether Ebert will have enough funding to implement her proposed changes across the district. Under Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposed budget, Nevada’s average per-pupil funding — which remains $4,000 behind the national average despite the historic K-12 funding increase in 2023 — will remain flat next school year.
Also hanging over the district is a threat from the Trump administration to cut federal funding, including Title I funding, for K-12 schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs that the administration has targeted.
The administration gave schools until April 24 to affirm their compliance with the order. Officials in states such as Connecticut, Minnesota and New York have signaled they will not comply.
Last year, federal funds made up less than 1 percent (about 0.1 percent), or about $3.2 million, of the district’s $3.4 billion in revenue.
Ebert said she’s working with the Nevada Department of Education to understand what the order means for the district and how it should respond, but didn’t specify whether that includes dissolving the district’s diversity and equity department, which has a $2 million budget.
Ebert told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she would follow the law.
Have a student or staffer who we should feature in the next edition of School Spotlight? Share your nominations with me at rocio@thenvindy.com.
Reading Assignments
Elaine Wynn, Las Vegas philanthropist and Wynn Resorts founder, has died at 82
In addition to gaming, Wynn was known as a champion for programs and services for children who live in poverty and children at risk of dropping out of school.
Extra Credit
Nevada Current: Bill seeks administrative fix to avoid ‘manufactured crisis’ in private school scholarship program
NPR: Trump administration says it is suing Maine over transgender athletes in girls' sports
Reno Gazette-Journal: WCSD facing $7 million deficit next school year as per-pupil funding set to remain flat
🍎 Washoe County School Board meeting — Tuesday, April 22, 2 p.m.
Location: 425 East Ninth Street, Reno
The agenda includes an update on the progress of the district’s cellphone policy pilot.
🥕 Giant Student Farmers Market — Tuesday, April 22, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Location: Downtown Summerlin, 1980 Festival Plaza Drive, Las Vegas
The event by Green Our Planet will feature produce grown by 500 students from 55 schools.
🍎 Clark County School Board meeting — Tuesday, April 24, 5 p.m.
Location: 2832 East Flamingo Road, Las Vegas
The agenda includes considering potential hires to build out Ebert’s cabinet, including Jesse Welsh, Nevada State High School CEO and one of the finalists for the superintendent position.
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Feeling a little jealous as someone who grew up watching WWE and was a Rey Mysterio fan.
