School Board Hears Report on Accountability

During their regular board meeting last week, the Churchill County School Board of Trustees discussed the district's monthly obligations to the Nevada Department of Education and the substantial effort required to produce the numerous reports for the various divisions of the DOE.

Assistant Superintendent Stacey Cooper presented her report to the board and referenced the state and federal submissions due each summer. Those reports feed into the Nevada Report Card, the Acing Accountability Monitoring, and several federal programs.

Trustee Kathryn Whitaker asked Cooper to expand on her report and explain for the record how many reports she is responsible for submitting on behalf of the district. 

“We have been on a trajectory of increased accountability and scrutiny for years,” said Cooper. “With the new administration, Governor Lombardo has called for increased scrutiny on auditing to prove where spending is going and how it is being used. Can we prove it, is providing results.” 

Through this process, the state determines whether or not the reporting from all the districts correlates with per-pupil spending and their curricula, testing, and MTSS (Mult-Tiered Systems of Support).

“It has been frustrating. Each report has unique nuances and doesn’t directly correlate to what’s gone before; they aren’t easy to produce, and in some cases, we have to go back and recalculate the same data in different formats for different divisions,” Cooper said.

She explained that the state is now asking for reporting on behavior to meet the legislative changes, including not just suspensions but possession, consumption, and distribution. “Our behavior framework doesn’t get that granular, but they’re asking for that type of reporting.”  

Cooper did say that she agrees with the increased push for accountability and understands its importance.

Superintendent Derild Parsons added that the DOE wants as much data as possible, “but that does put a burden on us. I’ve been noticing that turnaround times have significantly changed. We used to be given a request with several months deadline, but recently, requests are made with a two-week deadline.”  

He also explained that part of the change to Infinite Campus was originally so the state could access all the districts through the program and get consistent data. “That hasn’t worked like it was intended, and I’m noticing that our data pulls are not always accurate, which is also time-consuming.” 

Whitaker reiterated that she wanted the public to be aware of the demands from the state and that they are in addition to all the other requirements. “Meaningful accountability is important, keyword ‘meaningful,’ but my thinking is it would sure be nice if the Department of Education was getting this kind of accountability measures placed on them.” 

In other business, the board elected Amber Getto as Vice President, Joe McFadden as Clerk, and Julie Guerrero-Goetsch as Acting Clerk.

Parsons announced that work on the new district website has been completed and is now live. The community can see the new site at ChurchillCSD.com, where there is also a video presentation recapping the 2023-24 school year.

The school board will meet next on July 17, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in the district offices at 690 S. Maine Street in Fallon.