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Firing Jara was Cepeda’s idea, say two trustees
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 […]
This way madness lies
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. […]
A heartbreaking year at CCSD
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 […]
Chaos is the point
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 […]
Evelyn Doublespeak and the Gaslighters
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 […]
Fired but not gone yet, Jara still roiling CCSD
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 […]
Cirque du CCSD
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 […]
Will Jara’s dictatorial tendencies come back to bite him?
“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 […]
Well, THAT’s specious
Regular readers of my columns will not be surprised to learn that I have favorite words. “Hyperbole” is one. I love the way it rolls off the tongue, though I don’t love when people exemplify it. “Onomatopoeia” is another. I mean, seriously, what a fun word to say. And I love the idea that there […]
How mean girls work, or why the CCSD Trustees are the most sexist group I’ve ever seen
Last week I wrote about speech in public meetings. Today I want to talk about something courts have pretty much avoided, which is the ways in which people use speech. Not what is said, but how we say it. A few years ago, I happened upon the movie “Seeing Allred” on Netflix. There was a […]
The First Amendment and public meetings: It’s complicated.
On June 24, the CCSD Board of Trustees meeting was delayed several times by disruptive behavior, heckling and verbal threats, which created, for many people, an atmosphere of hostility. At the next Trustee meeting, on July 8, Trustee Lola Brooks laid the blame for the prior meeting’s disruption at the feet of board president Linda […]
Principals vs. teachers
Ladies and Gentlemen (and non-binary and gender fluid individuals) welcome to the intermediate round of The Fight Over Control of Our Schools. In one corner we have AB469, the 2017 bill that created Clark County School District reorganization, represented by THE PRINCIPALS! In the other corner, we have… the UNIONS, represented by… lots of people […]