{"id":3531,"date":"2025-08-01T20:58:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T20:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/?page_id=3531"},"modified":"2025-08-01T20:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T20:59:29","slug":"smboe-july-2023","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/smboe-july-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"SMBOE July 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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July 2023 Board of Education Meeting<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Michael Keyes<\/h5>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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NSHE Update<\/b><\/span><\/p>

Member Joe Arrascada updated us on the Nevada System of Higher Education. He reports they have been working hard to\u00a0strengthen<\/b>\u00a0the conduit between higher education and the state board of education. The NSHE Board of Regents approved multiple\u00a0academic programs<\/b>\u00a0at a previous meeting. NSHE system-level staff are working on policy revisions based on bills based on the last legislative session. He goes over various bills that just passed affecting the higher ed system.<\/p>

Additionally, he says that the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) is working to make sure college courses taught by high school teachers are as\u00a0rigorous<\/b>\u00a0as the classes taught by professors on the sponsoring college\u2019s campus. NACEP is hosting its 2023 national conference on October 22nd-24th in Saint Louis, Missouri. He ends his report by saying, \u201cOne of the reasons this is so important throughout the system of higher education and through the Nevada Department of Education is because\u00a0concurrent enrollment is imperative<\/b>\u00a0for the productivity and the systemic way that the system of higher education and the department of Education can maintain the strong relationship between each other.\u201d President Ortiz added by saying Nevada is one of the fastest-growing states when it comes to dual enrollment. In many cases, Nevada students have the opportunity to get their associate\u2019s degree before graduating high school. Dual enrollment not only\u00a0increases the number of students\u00a0<\/b>pursuing college after high school but also saves them\u00a0money<\/b>.<\/p>

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School Start Times<\/b><\/span><\/p>

Opening this discussion on start times, President Ortiz gave a\u00a0brief history<\/b>\u00a0of how this conversation got brought up and the work we have already done. This topic was brought up in the late fall of last year as an opportunity for the State Board to impact student outcomes. Nevada is a local control state, meaning most decisions lie in the local districts. Given this, the State Board of Education has a\u00a0narrow authority<\/b>, and school start times lie in that authority. We hosted three community workshops over the past year to gain community input, posted the research supporting later school start times, and talked about it at length during three separate board meetings. The research from the CDC, the American Heart Association, and the Association of Pediatric Doctors have all said it is imperative for students\u2019 mental and physical health to get sufficient sleep. When one reaches their teenage years, their natural circadian rhythm naturally shifts to rising later and falling asleep later. Teens need at least 8-10 hours of sleep for sufficient brain development. One of the biggest things to come out of the pandemic was the increase of the focus on teens\u2019 mental health, and this was something the BOE could change to\u00a0impact mental health and safety in a positive way<\/b>.<\/p>

To guide this discussion, President Ortiz created a decision tree for us to follow, which you can find\u00a0here<\/a>. Following this tree, the board mostly agreed they would\u00a0pursue regulation<\/b>\u00a0on school start times, that it would not apply to all school districts and charter schools, and that there would be guardrails in place for what school districts it would apply to. While considering a waiver, we decided that we did not want another piece of paper districts needed to fill out, as we wanted to take work away from districts, not put more on. Therefore, we favored an alternative: if they have schools starting before 8:00, they would have to\u00a0justify<\/b>\u00a0why they are starting so early or that they are providing different\u00a0options<\/b>\u00a0for students. The board does not currently need to decide on the specifics, but we are submitting language to\u00a0LCB to begin the regulation process<\/b>.<\/p>

During the meeting, the Department of Ed provided us with a list of\u00a0raw data\u00a0<\/b>on what time high schools start. While this was a rough list with some junior highs and repetition, I went through the data to clean it up and put it into pie charts. There is a statewide one as well as some district-specific ones. Please note there may be minor discrepancies in the data because I was the one who compiled it from the raw data, not the Department of Ed. The aim of this is to give you a\u00a0rough idea<\/b>\u00a0of the percentage of schools that start early.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Class Size Reduction<\/b><\/span><\/p>

The State Board of Ed must approve the districts\u2019 class sizes quarterly. In the past, the board has gotten presentations that do not reflect actual class sizes, as it was just the number of students divided by the number of licensed teachers. This year, the board requested that the Department of Ed come up with some ideas on how to\u00a0address<\/b>\u00a0this issue. You can see the presentation\u00a0here<\/a>. The optimal class size for younger students is between\u00a013-18 students<\/b>. These class sizes most benefit minority students, students living in poverty, and students living in inner-city schools. The next report from the schools is due in November, and the Department of Ed can give us a report on that data. Superintendent Ebert recommended bringing in some district superintendents and their staff to give us a presentation on what they are doing to\u00a0reduce class sizes<\/b>.<\/p>

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Legislative Update<\/b><\/span><\/p>

The Board of Ed was given a presentation by Dr. Katie Broughton on\u00a0Nevada\u2019s 82nd legislative session<\/b>. The 82nd legislative session was called to order on February 6th, 2023, and ended on June 5th, 2023. In addition, two special sessions were called to order after the 82nd session ended. During this legislative session, Nevada\u2019s education system got a\u00a0historical increase of funding<\/b>\u00a0of over 2 billion dollars for this biennium, which increased the adjusted base amount per student to about $9,292 for fiscal year 24.\u00a0<\/p>

The Department of Ed got 17 more positions, increased wages, and approved all travel enhancements. AB 400 passed, providing 70 million dollars per fiscal year for an Early Childhood Literacy and Readiness account and 2 million dollars per fiscal year for Teacher Advancement Scholarships. In addition, we were given an overview of many different bills, which you can read about\u00a0here<\/a>. Some\u00a0major topics<\/b>\u00a0covered are funding, student and school safety, teacher recruitment and retention, early childhood education, accountability, CTE and work-based learning, curriculum, standards, and instruction.\u00a0<\/p>

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If you have any personal experience with school start times, I strongly encourage you to send in a public comment to the Board of Education by emailing\u00a0<\/b>NVBoardEd@doe.nv.gov<\/b><\/a>\u00a0to be read into the record at our next board meeting on September 6th. If you send in a public comment please make sure it can be read within three minutes! I look forward to hearing all of your comments at our next meeting!<\/b><\/p>

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You can find the entire meeting materials\u00a0<\/b>HERE<\/b><\/a>. You can also watch a full recording of the meeting\u00a0<\/b>HERE<\/b><\/a>. The next meeting will be held on September 6th at 2pm.<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2023 Board of Education Meeting Michael Keyes NSHE Update Member Joe Arrascada updated us on the Nevada System of Higher Education. He reports they have been working hard to\u00a0strengthen\u00a0the conduit between higher education and the state board of education. The NSHE Board of Regents approved multiple\u00a0academic programs\u00a0at a previous meeting. NSHE system-level staff are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3531","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3535,"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531\/revisions\/3535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nevadastuco.org\/staging\/2009\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}