Candidates vie for Nevada Board of Regents seats in 3 districts

Three seats on the Nevada Board of Regents, the nonpartisan board that oversees Nevada’s higher education system, are on the ballot come November.

The board oversees Nevada’s four community colleges, two universities, a research institute and a state college.

The board itself is on the ballot come November as well. Voters have the choice to remove the constitutional status of the board, and instead provide legislative oversight of public institutions through audits.

The state Legislature also passed a bill last year reducing the current 13 member board to nine people who will serve four-year terms instead of six-year terms starting 2028.

District 1

Carlos Fernandez faces Matthew Bowen, whose campaign is somewhat invisible. Bowen does not have a clear campaign website, and did not respond to multiple requests from the Review-Journal for an interview.

Fernandez got over 7 percentage points, or 1,722 more votes, than Bowen in June’s primary election for the North Las Vegas seat.

Fernandez emigrated from Colombia, and told the Review-Journal that he was raised with the idea of education as a means of social mobility. As student body president at UNLV, he saw firsthand the impact the Board of Regents had on his experience — he also saw how little they stepped on campus, he said.

Fernandez also previously served as a lobbyist for the Vegas Chamber. As a member of the Board of Regents, he hopes to create a better link between education and business.

As executive director of the American Institute of Architects — Las Vegas Chapter, Fernandez said he sees a lot of UNLV graduates who are not workforce ready.

“I think that that’s a disservice to students, but I know it’s also on us as a community,” he said.

Bowen has one Youtube interview with Veterans in Politics, which has endorsed him. In it, he said that he served in the Air Force and attended five colleges, though never received a degree.

District 4

Special education teacher Aaron Bautista is running against Nevada State Public Charter School Authority Chair Tonia Holmes-Sutton to represent part of east Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. The two each got almost 30 perecent of the vote out of the five candidates in the primary, with Holmes-Sutton getting 96 more votes than Bautista.

Whereas Holmes-Sutton said she prides herself on her extensive leadership experience, Bautista is running on “transformative change” and wondered why education in Nevada is still ranked so low.

Bautista described himself as being “tricked” into going to college by a friend, who brought him to the College of Southern Nevada, which offered an opportunity to get a first class free. He eventually got his bachelor’s degree from Nevada State University.

A special education teacher in east Las Vegas, Bautista said he wants to make college more accessible and affordable, especially for the many students in his community who don’t have plans to go to college.

Bautista is also the only Regent candidate endorsed by the Clark County Education Association, which has praised his emphasis on programs to help people become teachers in Nevada, as well as his focus on students.

“I think he has a unique perspective on the link between K-12 and higher education,” John Vellardita, the association’s executive director, told the Review-Journal. “Having that voice on the Board of Regents can be helpful moving that forward.”

Holmes-Sutton described herself as coming from a family of educators dating back to the 1800s, and has both a master’s degree in special education and a doctorate in education and educational leadership from UNLV. In 2014, she was appointed by then-Gov. Brian Sandoval to the Nevada State Board of Education, where she served until 2019.

As a member of the Board of Regents, Holmes-Sutton said she hopes to increase opportunities for students, specifically in expanding dual credit systems, which allow high school students to earn college credits while in high school.

In an interview, Sutton said she would like to see the board “work in a collaborative fashion to ensure that we are providing these opportunities for equity and access.”

She also emphasized the importance of supporting rural communities and allocating resources to those schools.

District 12

Board of Regents chair Amy Carvalho faces a challenge from Jonathan Maxham, a holistic doctor who incorporates eastern and western medicine into his practice. There was no primary election for the district, which encompasses Henderson and Boulder City.

Carvalho originally ran for the seat six years ago because she was passionate about education and giving back to the community, and hopes that in continuing her tenure, she can provide stability to the board.

“It’s important for the public to know that we’ve got a solid future ahead of us, even though there are some unknowns right now,” she said.

This past year alone, two board members have faced a backlash for making comments that were criticized as being antisemitic and racist. Regents also have yet to hire a permanent chancellor to oversee the system.

Carvalho also hopes to strengthen the relationship between higher education and kindergarten through 12th grade.

Maxham, who formerly served in the Air Force, told the Review-Journal that his platform was “basically about red, white and blue.”

He said he would like to improve the budget, curriculum and student safety, but provided no specific plans.

“I have not been inside those walls and inside that room to identify how to go about fixing it,” he said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.