Author

Carrie Kaufman

Carrie Kaufman

Broadcast, digital and print journalist Carrie Kaufman writes the You're Overthinking It newsletter on Substack. She has covered the Clark County School District for public radio and The Nevada Voice since 2015. Follow Carrie on Twitter: @CarrieKaufman

COMMENTARY

CCSD needs meaningful change in wake of brutal attack

By: - April 15, 2022

This is what we know. A 26-year-old, second year teacher at Eldorado High School opened the door for one of her students at the end of the school day on Thursday, April 7. Jonathan Eluterio Martinez Garcia, 16, said he wanted to know about missing assignments. The teacher walked to her desk and sat down […]

COMMENTARY

State Board of Ed threatens CCSD with receivership: What might that mean?

By: - March 22, 2022

On March 14 the AB469 subcommittee for the Nevada State Board of Education met to discuss the authority the state has to put the Clark County School District into receivership for not implementing the reorganization law, which was passed in 2017. There’s been a lot of speculation on what this means. The district, of course, […]

COMMENTARY

Who ya gonna call? Gate Busters!

By: - March 15, 2022

The ghost of Emily Litella inhabited the CCSD boardroom last Thursday during a meeting whose main agenda was supposed to be about how to address escalating school violence. Instead, most commenters pointed to an item Supt. Jesus Jara and his team seemingly snuck into the consent agenda that would, on the surface, fund police officers […]

COMMENTARY

Party like it’s 1994

By: - March 2, 2022

Supt. Jesus Jara demonstrated my favorite word again at the CCSD Trustees meeting last week when he tried to argue that it wasn’t his fault so many teachers are leaving the district. At the beginning of the discussion about his performance evaluation, he noted, “the last time the Clark County School District opened fully staffed […]

COMMENTARY

Firing Jara was Cepeda’s idea, say two trustees

By: - January 21, 2022

On October 6, 2021, the Board of Trustees for the Clark County School District were told after their work session that they needed to go into a closed meeting. None of them were aware of what the closed meeting was about and, by all accounts, were pretty shell-shocked when chief negotiator Fikisha Miller walked in […]

COMMENTARY

This way madness lies

By: - January 13, 2022

I spent last weekend reading King Lear. And Facebook. One is about a world that is degenerating into madness in the face of a great storm, where nothing is what it seems and nihilism and betrayal are everywhere. The other is one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. It started Friday, when two pieces of news collided. […]

COMMENTARY

A heartbreaking year at CCSD

By: - December 29, 2021

This is the week of the year when we journalists look back and give a summary of what we’ve been writing about or reporting on. This is my summary: It was chaos. Utter chaos. That’s pretty much it. Thanks for reading, folks! OK, fine. I’ve been writing about CCSD, of course. Specifically the Board of […]

COMMENTARY

Chaos is the point

By: - December 8, 2021

It’s deja vu all over again at the Clark County School district, where Supt. Jesus Jara is still in charge (or maybe was never not in charge) after a protracted negotiation with CCSD Trustees. Presumably, the negotiation included, “I can do anything I want and no one can stop me,” because that is the gauntlet […]

COMMENTARY

Evelyn Doublespeak and the Gaslighters

By: - November 23, 2021

Doublespeak: deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language. Example: I’m sorry you were offended by my motion suggesting you might not be fit to live. It was not my intent to offend you. I am just stating a fact based on the, um, facts that your behavior has demonstrated on certain, perhaps, occasions when there is […]

COMMENTARY

Fired but not gone yet, Jara still roiling CCSD

By: - November 5, 2021

Recently fired CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara started out his first week as a lame duck by announcing he was giving raises to 16 of his top staffers – including 15 currently employed people and one Chief Information Officer to be named later. Then, the Trustees who are loyal to the ousted superintendent derailed an attempt […]

COMMENTARY

Cirque du CCSD

By: - November 2, 2021

The Clark County School District’s latest environmental performance piece Thursday was one of the best theatrical spectacles I have ever had the pleasure of attending. It was funny. It was infuriating. It had unexpected plot twists. It had suspense. A lot of suspense. It was incredibly interactive. And, ultimately, it came to a resolution. A […]

COMMENTARY

Will Jara’s dictatorial tendencies come back to bite him?

By: - October 28, 2021

“Don’t use my name.” “I never spoke to you.” “Somebody’s got to expose what’s happening here, Carrie.” “It’s a culture of retaliation.” “They give us responsibility, then set out to undermine us so we will fail.” These are actual quotes – chosen from a bevy I’ve collected over the last couple of years – that […]