During the last regular School Board meeting, trustees discussed the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and their priorities for the budget based on the strategic plan, the community survey, and budget policy.
Superintendent Derild Parsons reported on the budget committee meeting, where information on the board priorities and the public survey results were presented. He pointed out that over 47% of the survey participants were parents or family members.
“The emphasis was placed upon we need to do something to address the behavioral concerns that staff and parents are having,” said Parsons. “The committee said they want this to be an area for the staff and the board to consider in the budget development.”
The survey results prioritized a focus on keeping specials in elementary schools, with 57% of respondents. Additionally, enhancing career education received 49%, and reading interventions for K-12 students received 31%. Reducing class sizes and caseloads, recruitment incentives for licensed staff, and increasing mental health opportunities for staff were identified in the survey as priorities, along with increasing staff support to assist with student behavior, mental health support for students and staff, and physical safety.
Trustee Kathryn Whitaker noticed that in the survey results, one of the highest concerns was maintaining elementary specials. “I think it’s clear that the community does want that, and it was a big goal of ours, and we’ve done that, but I’m still fascinated by how much that beat everything else. I’m just wondering if, as a community, we really realize what’s going on in our schools. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t be looking at specials. I’m just wondering if we’re doing a good job communicating what the real needs are.”
According to the Nevada Department of Education District School Ratings from the 2022-23 school year on the Nevada Accountability Portal, the English Language Arts Proficiency in the Churchill County School District shows that only 32.7% of elementary students are proficient in ELA, with 30.9% proficient in middle school and 48.8% efficient in high school. Math Proficiency scores are 27.7% proficient in elementary, with a shocking 15.6% proficient in middle school and 19% proficient in high school.
With $12,278 spent per pupil, Churchill has a 79.75% graduation rate, a 33.1% Chronic Absenteeism Rate, and 29 bullying events that resulted in suspension.
Assessments used to produce the data are the state-approved Criterion-Referenced Test and the College and Career Ready Assessment.
“We’re facing some tough times as far as student achievement goes,” said Trustee Tricia Strasdin. “but I also think that we’re making some great strides with the curriculum and the supports that we have in place.”
Trustee Julie Guerrero-Goetsch said that she was at the budget advisory committee meeting, and the number one topic discussed, “more than any other topic, was the behavior and that being the priority.”
The discussion also revolved around the Statewide Education Audit released recently by Governor Lombardo and the Nevada Department of Education. Parsons said, “The word hammer was mentioned, like, six times, ‘having a hammer to make districts do certain things’ was mentioned. He said there is a potential for requirements in the report to cost districts money. “They can legislate and mandate lots of things, but they require people, and we don’t have the ability to get the people even with the money.”
Parsons made a point of thanking the board for their support and the teachers for their hard work and recognized that the legislature did give districts some money, which has made things better. “We’re not going to stop fighting for more because we’re still way lower than we need to be.”
He said that the board has made some excellent decisions, and there are many good things to come. “Some of the things we have been doing are making a difference. We have more substitutes today than we had.”
Recognizing the board's actions and employees' hard work, Parsons said good things are happening for students. “My job is to make sure that financially, we put things in the areas that will see achievements and meet the mandates. I will fight them all the way on things that aren’t helping us, and the things that are, we are more than happy to do.”
“The one thing I wish I could change is the time process it takes to make things move and go. We tried the get done tomorrow approach, but for most of the true systemic changes and positive outputs, it takes a little bit longer,” Parsons said.
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