The new superintendent of the Clark County School District released a plan for his first 90 days that includes a goal of fully staffing classrooms on the first day of school.
That is a lofty goal given the chronic teacher shortage the district has struggled with and recent budget cuts that took $47 million from Clark County schools' budgets.
CCSD's new superintendent tours Del Sol Academy
Parents say Jesus Jara has his work cut out for him.
In his 90-day entry plan, superintendent Jara said he is hoping to hold 100 meetings and 100 school visits by the end of October to get input from teachers, lawmakers community leaders and parents.
Parents say the primary goal is simple.
"They need to go back to putting the kid first," Diana Balean said.
The six-page plan lays out a three-phase entry plan that Jara says will help him determine if CCSD's Pledge of Achievement needs to be refreshed, realigned or completely restarted.
The plan includes six areas of focus over the first three months including governance structure, student achievement, human capital, finance, organization and community engagement.
Some of the key measures listed in those areas include:
- Increase kindergarten readiness measures
- Increase third-grade reading scores
- Increase college readiness and graduation rate
- Strengthen collaborative relations with labor unions
- Fully staff every classroom by the first day of school
- Recruit and retain high-performing principals in chronically low-performing schools
- Decrease operational costs to drive more funding to the classroom
Parents who spoke with 13 Action News said they like the ideas outlined, but only if they lead to results.
"I have no faith in any politics. I need to see it, which is great that he is saying it, but I need to see it. So if he is going he is going to listen to everyone and the suggestions and work with the parents that would be fantastic," Balean said.
