The Clark County School District’s superintendent finalists are like the three blind mice. They don’t see the district’s fundamental problem.
On Thursday, the Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on a new superintendent. The three finalists are Jhone Ebert, Jesse Welsh and Ben Shuldiner.
Ebert, who is the state superintendent of public instruction, is the clear favorite despite Nevada’s failing education system. In a letter, Gov. Joe Lombardo offered his “highest recommendation” for Ebert. State Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop, D-Las Vegas, has also endorsed her.
Whatever merit they see in Ebert hasn’t been apparent from the platitudes and surface-level analysis she has offered during the selection process. “Education is who I am,” Ebert said during her presentation to the School Board last month. Groan.
She said a district weakness was “lack of trust.” She posed the question, “How do we become the district we dream of becoming?” Her answer: “We need to define our own vision” and then “make the vision actionable.” She suggested elevating “student success as our North Star.”
If only someone else had thought about trust and prioritizing student success. Oh wait. Former Superintendent Jesus Jara did. When he started, he prioritized building trust and raising third-grade reading scores.
Welsh feels like the fallback candidate. He previously served as an assistant superintendent with the district. He’s currently CEO of Nevada State High School. He provided many more details than Ebert but identified “negotiated agreements with bargaining units” as an opportunity. Oh boy.
Shuldiner, currently the district superintendent in Lansing, Michigan, has been the most impressive candidate. His presentation had the most substance. He was quite direct about the district’s failures, saying, “Clark County students deserve better.”
He likely hurt himself by pointing out a couple of truths. He praised the district for its “beautiful, wonderful buildings.” At an average age of just 29 years, they’re much newer than school buildings in New York that are from “the Teddy Roosevelt administration,” he said. Remember this the next time the district wants a property tax hike or extension.
The district had an “18 percent increase and (a) 23 percent increase” in per-pupil revenue in recent years, he noted. “There is a lot of money — a lot of new money. So where is it all going?”
Easy answer: It’s primarily going to pay the same people more for doing the same thing. And he’ll learn that the hard way with an attitude like this on labor unions: “Not so long ago, you had teachers arrested at a board meeting,” he said. “Now, I do not blame labor at all. That means they were pushed.”
That statement is a good summary of each finalist’s main blind spot. They believe the right person can fix the district by helping everyone get along and unify around the goal of helping students. That would be a good plan if everyone were acting in good faith.
But the Clark County Education Association, led by John Vellardita, isn’t. Vellardita is toxic and has de facto control of the district. Good luck leading without the authority to change things.
The board should reject these candidates and find one who’s willing to acknowledge this. Any superintendent who doesn’t see the obvious is going to fail.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow
@victorjoecks on X.
