Finding a superstar superintendent for the Clark County School District

The Clark County School Board has scheduled a special meeting for Monday night to again consider a national search for the district’s next superintendent. Provided a majority of the trustees vote to launch the search and contract with a search firm, they’ll have done the right thing.

The school district is the fifth-largest system in the country. Its enrollment is growing again, and the challenges of lifting overall achievement are growing right along with it. As UNLV law professor Sylvia Lazos points out in an op-ed in today’s Viewpoints section, one in six students is an English Language Learner, and 70 percent of ELL students in grades K-8 are not reading at grade level. Barely 60 percent of the school district’s students graduate from high school. The system has ongoing issues with its union contracts and personnel costs.

It will take special leadership skills to lift the Clark County School District’s performance. Trustees owe it to parents, students and taxpayers to pursue the best candidates for superintendent they can find. After all, hiring a superintendent is the most important decision trustees are elected to make.

That’s because trustees are supposed to be stewards, not managers or meddlers. They set policy. The job of implementing policy and operating schools belongs to the superintendent. If trustees aren’t going to bother aiming high with a national search, and simply award interim Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky the permanent post, then why did they run for the School Board in the first place?

Last month, trustees hit the pause button on the search process, briefly caving to public pressure to abort the hunt and hire from within. The unexpected, disappointing March exit of Dwight Jones as superintendent soured a lot of people on the idea of spending top dollar for another outsider who might take the money and run. Hesitant behavior by elected trustees will not inspire a management superstar to move to Clark County.

Monday’s agenda calls for consideration of a contract with the search firm McPherson & Jacobson worth about $48,000. As long as trustees are committed to hiring the best candidate possible — not merely going through the motions — the search costs will be worth every penny.