School district chief pledges full review of all spending
Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky vowed Monday to scrutinize every dollar spent in the Clark County School District to assure funds are used expressly for student achievement.
The pledge came during Skorkowsky’s first State of the District address given at Del Sol High School in southeast Las Vegas about a year after he took over the struggling district, the fifth-largest in the nation with a $2 billion annual budget.
Skorkowsky said several local CEOs and former school superintendents have volunteered to dig through district and school budgets, assessing budgeting structures and return on investment of expenses. He wouldn’t identify these volunteers but has their “verbal commitment” to start work in July, he said.
Skorkowsky’s office is also analyzing the success of all internally operated and contracted programs to determine if they should be changed or eliminated. He recently cut $7 million in contracts with school manager Catapult Learning and Ombudsman Educational Services, which serves failing high school students, to provide these services in house.
The only current expenses“guaranteed” to remain is what the federal and state government mandate, Skorkowsky said. Until the spending evaluation is finished and changes made, the district won’t ask state lawmakers for any more funding despite Nevada schools operating on $7,582 per student, the lowest rate in the nation, he said.
“Our drive toward achievement will begin today,” said Skorkowsky, praised by local education leaders before his speech for his classroom experience, which spans starting as a Clark County teacher about 26 years ago and advancing to become a principal, academic manager and associate superintendent.
Improvement in student performance is needed, said Clark County School Board President Erin Cranor.
“Our community needs a huge win in education, an odds-defying win,” she said.
To that end, Skorkowsky said he’s making a “pledge of achievement,” which is also the name of his strategic plan unveiled Monday. Benchmarks will be set for graduation rates, course grades and the percentage of students scoring at grade level on state tests in math, reading and science skills. These statistics will be reported regularly to the public to show whether benchmarks are being met.
“We can’t do this alone,” Skorkowsky said. “If our students are going to achieve more, and they must, we need to do it together.”
His plan calls for more efforts to involve parents, such as creating more school parent organizations and being more responsive to families. A district website, pledgeofachievement.com, has been created in hopes of attracting more community support, whether it’s directly volunteering at a school, donating or helping an education-related nonprofit group.
Skorkowsky set one overarching goal that must be met by students, even though the details of getting there remain unclear. All children must show grade-level reading skills by the end of third grade, the pivotal point where students transition from learning to read to now reading to learn.
“We know students have to be successful by the end of third grade,” he said.
Anything else won’t be allowed, he said. However, about one out of every three Clark County third-graders is behind in reading skills and advances to fourth grade, according to state test results. By eighth grade, the rate of reading-deficient students doubles to 61 percent.
State lawmakers entertained legislation in 2013 to make schools hold back third-graders who lag in reading, but it didn’t go anywhere.
In an interview after his address, Skorkowsky didn’t say he would hold back struggling third-graders. Instead, every elementary school would develop its own plan for getting every student on track by the end of third grade. The district would then look at resources provided to each school, “rethink a little bit” and come to a plan with the school, said Skorkowsky who’s making this third-grade stance in anticipation of another bill in 2015 that may become law this time.
“We’re calling this our pledge of achievement to you,” said Skorkowsky, closing his address.
Contact Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @TrevonMilliard.CallSend SMSAdd to SkypeYou’ll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
