LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The union that represents administrators in the Clark County School District is asking school trustees to table the proposed transition to a hybrid teaching model, slamming the school superintendent and questioning why more people weren’t involved in crafting the plan.
School trustees are expected to vote on the hybrid plan — which mixes classroom learning and distance learning — at today’s meeting.
“Central office administrators and school leaders cannot, in good conscience, support a plan that will definitely fall short of student, family, and staff expectations and that will potentially put their health at risk,” said Stephen Augspurger, executive director of the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-technical Employees (CCASAPE). His comments came in a letter that he asked to be read into the record at today’s meeting.
Augspurger cites several reasons for delaying any action on the proposal:
- Insufficient time for hearing feedback
- Short turnaround from the proposal’s release and the vote
- Failure to involve parents and employees — and their union — in the development of the plan
- Increased levels of COVID-19 spread in Clark County
“It is our position that it is unreasonable to unveil a 205-page plan less than 72 hours prior to requesting Board approval of the plan, when it clearly lacks wide-scale community vetting and input,” Augspurger said.
The union sees “a document that is inadequate when it comes to meeting the instructional and emotional needs of students.”
Augspurger criticizes CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara for failing to closely involve school building leaders and provide time for their feedback.
“While administrators were asked to select from a field of pre-developed schedules of potentially unviable and unsafe options, this is no substitution for legitimate, productive discourse with the building leaders who will assume a huge role in promoting the overall success and safety of the proposed plan,” he said.
“To declare our disappointment with the development, content, and subsequent release of the plan is surely an understatement,” Augspurger said.
