High Sierra storm again wreaks havoc on Nevada Legislature

CARSON CITY — Mother Nature once again reared her icy head at lawmakers in the state capital, as winter weather forced delays for the start of the second day of the Nevada Legislature.

The storm that blew through the High Sierra over the weekend dropped 6 inches of fresh snow Tuesday morning in Carson City, according to the National Weather Service, causing legislative committee meetings to be delayed by two hours.

On Monday, Gov. Steve Sisolak had ordered all nonessential state government offices closed by 1:30 p.m. By 3 p.m. he extended that order to all state offices in Washoe and Douglas counties.

Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, said Wednesday’s committee meetings will start an hour late, at 9 a.m.

Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, took a moment on the Assembly floor to recognize the grounds crews and other workers who have kept the roads clear during the winter squall.

“It would be remiss if we did not thank our folks that have been clearing sidewalks and roads, clearing off the cars, making sure we all got home safely,” Carlton said. “I just wanted to thank them.”

Counselors make their case

The Assembly Education Committee embarked on its work for the session with a presentation from groups representing school guidance counselors.

Keeli Killian, president-elect of the Nevada Counselors Association, told the panel that Nevada ranks 39th in the nation in the counselor-to-student ratio and is nearly double the 250-to-1 rate the American School Counselor Association defines as optimal. Nevada’s rate as of the 2015-16 school year was 485-to-1.

The rate varies among counties, districts and schools across the state, with at least one elementary school effectively having one counselor for all 1,400 students, with 11 elementary schools having none at all, the committee was told.

Killian said counselors in some districts are assigned to other duties, becoming highly paid lunch workers in some cases. The group wants mandated counselors in every school, lower counselor-to-student ratios, and a minimum 80 percent of their time spent on helping students.

“It’s slightly impossible to have a school counselor program that serves all students when we don’t get our ratios down,” she told the committee.

Other counselors, one reduced to tears, told the panel of excessive high caseloads and burnout they have experienced.

A family affair

Lawmaking is a family affair for the Hansens.

With Ira Hansen’s election to the Senate and his wife Alexis Hansen’s election to the Nevada Assembly in November, the husband and wife of 38 years became the first married couple in Nevada’s 154-year history to be elected to the state Legislature in the same session.

And not since Lincoln County Assemblyman Willard W. Smith and Nye County Assemblywoman Florence B. Swasey were married at the end of the 1925 session has a married couple served in Legislature together, according to a declaration read into the record on the Assembly floor to recognize and celebrate the occasion.

“We commend and express our appreciation for their willingness to serve all Nevada families,” Assemblyman John Ellison, R-Elko, said of the couple, who he called his “dear friends.”

On tap

The Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services is scheduled to hear a presentation about what can be learned from the Emergency Medical Services response to the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.

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Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter. Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter. Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelcrosby on Twitter.