5 seek open 1st District seat on State Board of Education
It is a crowded race for the District 1 State Board of Education seat.
There are five candidates for the job, currently held by Robert Blakely, who is not running for reelection. The board is the governance arm for the Nevada Department of Education and sets standards for students and policy to ensure equal access to education. It also directs money to programs to retain teachers.
With expected budget cuts coming to education funding amid the economic downturn, each candidate has a different approach to address distance learning, the state’s low national education ranking and teacher recruitment and retention.
As a former teacher and principal, Tim Hughes, 40, believes he has the expertise to help guide the state as schooling techniques are due to change after the pandemic. This isn’t Hughes’ first run for the seat; he ran against Blakely in 2016.
“I wanted to give it another shot,” he said. He currently works as the vice president to TNTP, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending educational inequity. Getting students back on track when they get back to school, is a high priority, he said.
The board also needs to ensure schools have a plan in place in case they close again and improve communication channels with parents. Other goals include increasing access to resources, supporting early childhood programs and changing policies that will help recruit and retain teachers.
“This is what I live and breathe,” he said. “I have that perspective of what it takes to implement strong policies for kids.”
Angelo Casino
Angelo Casino, 39, believes his background as an educator gives him the chops make tough decisions. If elected Casino, who has been a teacher at Summerset Academy Lone Mountain for four years, would support equal funding for charter schools, increase opportunities for students to learn about careers in technical education and push for better pay for educators.
Distance learning brings out other concerns Casino would like to address. Security on the internet and access to technology are two of the biggest issues for parents, he said.
“We’re dealing with a lot of the inequalities in our society and it’s scary,” Casino said. “We always have to make sure and that no student is ever deprived of our education.”
Michael Robison
Michael Robison, 72, believes his extensive background in the education system would help him when it comes to policy making. The highlights of his career include working as an assistant superintendent in the Clark County School District and later representing UNLV to the State Board of Education when he worked under the Department of Educational Leadership from 2004-10.
From 2015-19, he represented the University of Phoenix’s Las Vegas campus to the board when he worked as the campus college chair for the College of Education.
“Education has been rigid to change,” he said, adding that his experience could help get the ball moving and provide the leadership needed to guide education policies amid the coronavirus pandemic. His goals include increasing teacher retention and addressing transportation issues.
“You can’t really be on the policy side when you’re on the administrator side. Now I’m free to do that and I’d like to try,” he said.
Aaron Mason
Aaron Mason’s top goal is to increase Nevada’s education ranking to 35th in the country by the end of his term, if elected. Looking into expenditures is also on the 39-year-old’s to-do list and something his experience as the director of ticket operations and analytics for the Las Vegas Lights could be helpful in.
Mason became interested in running when he started noticing funding issues at his children’s school in Clark County.
“I feel like I could jump in and make a difference,” he said. “I think now is a good time to look outside to someone like myself.”
The last candidate, Steve Esh did not reply to multiple requests to be interviewed for this story.
Contact Alex Chhith at achhith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0290. Follow @alexchhith on Twitter.
