Valley High School Principal Ramona Esparza poses at the school Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020.
Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023 | 2 a.m.
More educators are taking roles on the expanding Clark County School Board, and they are doing so with optimism.
With the passage this year of Assembly Bill 175, a bipartisan effort to add nonvoting advisory members to CCSD’s often-fractured school board, the city councils of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, and the Clark County Commission, were each tasked with appointing a representative to join the seven elected members of the board.
Retired CCSD principal Ramona Esparza-Stoffregan, education nonprofit executive and former charter school director Adam Johnson, and Rancho High School teacher and sitting North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron were named this month. The county’s selection is pending.
The appointees will take office in January.
The new hybridization law only affects CCSD, Nevada’s largest district and one of the largest school districts in the country. Opponents, current members among them, said the move stifles democracy and accountability. Reformers and supporters cited the School Board’s open fighting and suggested expanding diversity of thought.
Even as nonvoting members, the new appointees will be involved in briefings, interviews, evaluations, closed-door sessions, policy and operational discussions, and community outreach events.
Here’s how the newcomers hope to contribute:
Henderson
Esparza-Stoffregan is only two years removed from CCSD, so when she takes office, she expects to be able to hit the ground running.
She knows how CCSD works — its internal systems, procedures and expectations.
She wants to ask the right questions, look at data through a different lens, and think about things that haven’t been thought about. She plans to do it through listening and empathy.
“It’s all about people. People matter. Relationships matter. I am that person that can bring people together,” she said. “I’ve done it in my roles everywhere I go and whatever I do. It sounds very Pollyanna, but I try to make things better.”
Esparza-Stoffregan said that although she won’t be able to vote, she will make an impact by being a liaison to Henderson residents, building common ground among fellow School Board members and the superintendent, offering transparency, and giving guidance to the superintendent.
Esparza-Stoffregan was one of dozens of career administrators who took an early retirement buyout from CCSD in 2021. Most recently, she was the principal of Valley High School.
Prior to that, she was an assistant principal at Chaparral High School, a data coordinator and English-language learning facilitator at the central office, and an English teacher at Becker Middle School. She was a CCSD employee for 27 years.
The elected School Board members have shown trepidation to the shift to a hybridized board. Esparza-Stoffregan said she can calm their anxiety with her collaborative nature.
“I am very much a collaborator, (a) consensus builder. I hope I can be a bridge, and I want to look at all of our skills and our talents and our individual experiences to solve the hard problems,” said Esparza-Stoffregan, who said she returns to the district on good terms. “I’m hoping that they will be willing to be open-minded, as I am, to be able to support the superintendent in his day-to-day work, ensuring that schools in our communities are successful.”
In her post-CCSD work, Esparza-Stoffregan is president of the Leadership Institute of Nevada, supporting ongoing professional development of teachers and administrators. She also serves as president of the Nevada Association of Latino Administrators & Superintendents and as a national-level consultant for the nonprofit Communities in Schools, which offers children support services to prevent dropouts.
The Henderson City Council confirmed her appointment Oct. 17.
“Now that I’ve been able to have new experiences and be able to really help others outside of my state, I felt like it’s time to return to service, again as a leader. There’s a need, and I want to be able to leave this space better than where we are,” she said.
Las Vegas
Adam Johnson
Knowing that he has a voice but not a vote, Johnson says he will use his position to research facts and use them to persuade the elected board members who can cast votes.
“Even if I were a voting member, I’d be one of several. Whether it’d be my single vote that would sway something, that’d be optimistic thinking,” he said. “It has some influence, but it’s not as much as being able to let folks know I’m here solely to listen, to help bring really strong input from a variety of different places, and then to help make sure that we’re moving together, collectively, as opposed to thinking about my vote being the one that I’d like you to be behind.”
Johnson is senior director of the Western region for College Board, the nonprofit that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement tests. The Las Vegas City Council confirmed Johnson’s appointment Oct. 4.
He began his career in business before switching to education organizations like Teach For America and Democracy Prep charter schools. He was the executive director at the latter’s Agassi Campus in the Historic West Side for more than five years. As a school director, he said he saw the perspectives of many stakeholders while trying to work toward a common goal.
While elected School Board members opposed the hybrid concept, Johnson said he is joining to add value, not tension.
“Once folks have an opportunity to see that we’re working toward the same goals, my hope is that that then eliminates some of the concerns that might have existed previously,” he said.
He wants to get an understanding of the district and School Board’s strategic visions, but not come in with an agenda.
“Before I want to come in and make any sweeping changes, I do want to listen, learn, understand, and get a lay of where we are,” he said. “I think it’s also going to be helpful for us to set some very lofty goals based on where we are today.”
Johnson noted that Gov. Joe Lombardo expects a return on the state’s added financial investment in public education. Las Vegas has also been clear that it wants strong and swift improvement, he said.
Johnson said the School Board needs to make decisions thoughtfully, while knowing that the children in school today have a relatively few formative years before beginning their adult lives.
Change and reform take time, but pupils only have so much time to wait.
“We have to work with a level of urgency to ensure that we can deliver to students and families the things that they need so they can be (the) productive citizens and community members that they want to be, and design the lives for themselves that they want,” he said.
North Las Vegas
North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron speaks during a city council meeting at North Las Vegas City Hall Wednesday, August 3, 2022.
Longtime North Las Vegas City Councilman — and longtime Rancho High teacher — Isaac Barron will represent his constituents in a new way by filling the city’s School Board spot.
“I’ll be advocating for the children of North Las Vegas, first and foremost,” he said at the Oct. 18 council meeting where his city colleagues confirmed his appointment. “I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure that our kids never get left behind.”
“You are elected by the people (to) your council position, so we have the utmost faith in you that you are going to be that voice — even though it’s a nonvoting voice — to represent ... North Las Vegas,” Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown said.
Barron has been a city councilman since 2013. He was reelected to the city’s Ward 1 last year.
“I have talked to your kids, I have been in your space outside of here, and they sing your praises,” Goynes-Brown added.
Barron was unavailable for further comment.
