A year in, CCSD superintendent reflects on safety struggles, bell schedule changes

One year into her role as Clark County School District superintendent, Jhone Ebert spoke on Thursday about upcoming school start time changes, student pedestrian safety and staffing for next school year.

“It’s been an exciting time,” Ebert said, touting increased graduation rates and improved academic proficiency in the last year during a press conference at Thiriot Elementary School.

With bell schedule changes slated to take effect beginning next school year, Ebert acknowledged a mixed reaction the announcement received from Las Vegas Valley residents.

Generally, middle schools classes will begin a half hour earlier than they currently do, while elementary classes will start 15 minutes later and high school classes an hour and a half later.

Ebert maintained that the decision to make those changes was research-driven.

“We were the only school district in the nation that had a 7 a.m. start time … expecting our children to be in their seats, ready to learn at 7 a.m.,” Ebert said. “Using the research, using the input from families, we are happy to make that change across the school district. We’ll be tracking the data, and we should see, or we’re expecting, that we’ll see improved student outcomes because of the change in start times.”

For students commuting to school, Ebert pointed to efforts this year to improve safety in and around school zones. Data compiled by school district police from Clark County law enforcement agencies shows 347 student pedestrians have been hit by vehicles this school year — more collisions than the three previous school years combined.

Ebert celebrated a new state law set to take effect on July 1 that gives local municipalities control over traffic lights in school zones, and acknowledged that the district is improving its efforts to educate students on how to be safe pedestrians.

“In some of those instances, the children are not obeying the traffic laws themselves. They’re not looking left, looking right, looking left again,” Ebert said. School district police data shows student pedestrians were at fault in about 47 percent of this school year’s collisions with vehicles.

A Traffic Safety Working Group, established by the school district in August, is expected to release a report detailing ways to improve student pedestrian safety soon, Ebert said.

She added that the district is still researching ways to attach stop-arm cameras onto school buses after a vote to approve a contract for a camera vendor was abruptly pulled from a February Clark County School Board meeting agenda.

Asked for an update on teacher staffing, Ebert said there are only around 200 teachers who have not been placed in a position for the upcoming school year. In February, the district said 682 licensed employees were identified as surplus, meaning their schools did not have the funding required to keep their position.

Though she shied away from a guarantee, Ebert said “we’re shooting for 100 percent of our teachers placed” in classrooms come August.

Ebert also mentioned the several school staff who have been arrested or sentenced this school year for inappropriate conduct with students, calling the incidents “not acceptable.”

“It’s not just happening in Clark County School District schools. It’s happening in charter schools, it’s happening in private schools,” Ebert said. “Our children need to be safe.”

She said all school district staff are fingerprinted and undergo FBI background checks, adding that schools at all levels teach students what to do when inappropriate incidents occur.

As she looks to the future, Ebert said she is aiming to expand middle school athletic opportunities and lengthen school days.

“We would love to see the amount of time that our children are in school expanded so they have opportunities for more project-based learning, hands-on components, all of those pieces,” Ebert said.