Please note that agenda items 9, 10, and 11 were pulled off this meeting’s agenda due to technical difficulties and delays in the documentation, so this blog post will be generally shorter than normal.

Purple Star Schools

April is the month of the military child, so during this board meeting, we got a review of the activities that took place last month. Nevada has over 330,000 veterans plus active duty members, so it’s important to accommodate their children’s academic needs! The Nevada Department of Education named 14 schools Purple Star Schools, which are doing a wonderful job accommodating the needs of the military child! (Five are NASC schools; I bolded them in the list!) These schools were:

• Advanced Technologies Academy – Clark County
• Carson High School – Carson City
• Dayton Elementary School – Lyon County
• Faith Lutheran Academy – Private School
• Faith Lutheran Preschool – Private School
• Innovation Academy – Private School
• Kenneth Divich Elementary School – Clark County
• Legacy Traditional North Valley Campus – State Public Charter School Authority
• Mountain View Christian Schools – Private School
• Mojave Springs School – Private School
• Northwest Career and Technical Academy – Clark County
• Shadow Ridge High School – Clark County
• William and Mary Scherkenbach Elementary School – Clark County
• Victoria Fertitta Leadership Academy – Clark County

Competency-Based Learning, but Only for Students?

Member Hughes pulled multiple items off of the Board’s consent agenda (a list of many items that are normally approved in one go) about teacher license renewal. These adjustments specifically marked how many hours to be put into credits to renew a teacher’s license. This opposes Nevada’s work on the Nevada Portrait of a Learning and moving towards a more competency-based education system, which is the goal of many educational leaders throughout the state. Through discussion, the board decided to approve the adjustments as it would affect many license renewals if not approved but to go back to the topic later. The Board is looking to have discussions with the Commission on Professional Standards in Education, or COPS, having competency-based education in mind in the future when creating new regulations.

School Start Times, Gathering Data

There was a long conversation about many topics relating to the survey, including language barriers and keeping impartiality within the survey. One huge drawback to the platform the DOE is using for this survey is there are only Spanish and French translations for only the introduction to the survey. If a stakeholder (student, teacher, staff, parent, community member) only spoke a different language or weren’t fluent in English, they would need to manually copy and paste the questions into Google Translate (which, as mentioned in the Board meeting, is highly inaccurate) Approximately 13.7 percent of Nevada’s student population are English learners, or as the Board likes to refer to them, emerging bilinguals. Additionally, even if the entire survey were translated into only those two other languages, we would be leaving out many other communities, such as students who primarily speak Tagalog, the third most spoken language in Nevada. To solve this, I suggested that NDE manually translate the survey and provide the translated version to the platform, as I do not think the survey as it was then would be equitable.

There was also a conversation about keeping the survey impartial while providing information and context. One Board Member brought up that we must be extremely careful maintaining impartiality in the survey, as even if we get results that support regulation of start times, many will simply refute it based on the fact that the survey was trying to get them to answer a certain way. On the flip side, if not provided information and studies about the negative impact early start times can have on students, many may not have the luxury to sacrifice time to do their own research, which becomes a problem of equity. The board decided not to add any additional information or links to studies to keep the integrity of the survey results.

The school year is ending for most people in a few weeks, so it would be a race against time to get this out to the community before then. I was a proponent of trying to get it out before the end of the school year. That way, it doesn’t interrupt much instruction as many teachers are just preparing or administering finals, so we get the Class of 2024’s opinions. Although the possible change would not affect them as they are leaving, many of them have had years of experience with the early start time. Despite those reasons, the Board decided to wait until the beginning of next year to disperse the survey, allowing more time for revisions, in hopes of getting the results back and possibly putting in a Bill Draft Request before the February due date for the Legislative session. You can view the first draft of the survey here.

Although not mentioned above, the Board l reevaluated the age requirements that apply to the Developmental Delay categorical eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. No action has been taken yet, the Board tasked the Department with creating appropriate language for revisions.

Although this was my last meeting as your ‘23-’24 SMBOE, I’m excited to serve you all again for another year. Keep an eye out for the next blog post, where I will go over my goals for the year and how I will achieve them. 

You can find the meeting materials HERE, the agenda HERE, the first part of the recorded meeting HERE, and the second part HERE. The next meeting will be held on June 12th at 9 AM.