COMMENTARY: Public needs to get involved in school spending decision

Everybody wants the children in their lives to become successful adults. One critical key to their success is a high-quality education. Typically, in many of our public schools, success is the result of caring parents or guardians and teachers working with individual students to prepare them for college, employment and life. There are countless individual success stories, but our public schools must improve across the board so every student can succeed.

The Clark County School District has launched a unique initiative called “Focus on the Future for Kids” designed to engage the entire community to set the long-term vision for our pre-K through 12th grade public education. This initiative is partially focused on how the district will invest $770 million of upcoming federal funds. However, its primary aim is to engage all of us, across every demographic and perspective, to set a course for sustained public education excellence for the benefit of our children.

In my opinion, this is an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up.

We have come together in the past to support our public schools. Last year, when the pandemic shut down our schools, the governor’s COVID-19 task force and many community partners joined forces to ensure every Nevada student was able to learn online. This was achieved by ensuring all students had access to the internet and a device at home, a monumental and largely unheralded achievement. The Public Education Foundation, which I am proud to chair, was one of the many organizations committed to this important effort.

As we look forward to all public schools returning to full-time, in-class instruction on Monday, the foundation has turned its attention to bringing us together again to participate in the district’s community engagement process. Unlike prior initiatives where the district has gathered feedback on plans already in the works, the community has been asked to help the district map out the blueprint for long-term success. Superintendent Jesus Jara has pledged to incorporate community feedback when the district designs and starts to implement its vision and plan to utilize federal funds this fall.

I applaud the school district for recognizing that it must solicit and incorporate community input if it expects community support for its short- and long-term goals. The foundation, along with Opportunity 180, the Guinn Center and more than 100 other community organizations are convening input sessions through Friday and actively seeking the broadest possible representation at these sessions.

You can learn more by visiting: future.ccsd.net.

Let’s embrace this opportunity to fix our public schools once and for all. Join us and help create a vision for the bright future that all our children unquestionably deserve.

Jan Jones Blackhurst, Las Vegas mayor of Las Vegas from 1991-1999, chairs the Board of Directors of the Public Education Foundation.