CCSD students lead school board candidate forum

Jesse Cruz was a senior at Canyon Springs High School in 2020 when he was tapped to help moderate a discussion with the then-candidates for the Clark County School Board.

Cruz remembers “popping off” about one question in particular: How would the candidates ensure equitable access to education for students in neighborhoods like his on the north side of Las Vegas, one of the poorest ZIP codes in the country?

“We made sure to ask not only the right questions but questions that mattered to us,” he said.

Two years later, Cruz was on hand to help a new crop of high school students develop questions for school board candidates ahead of November’s general election, in which three school board seats are up for grabs.

Incumbents Irene Cepeda, Danielle Ford and Linda Cavazos will face off against challengers Brenda Zamora, Irene Bustamante Adams and Greg Wieman, respectively.

On Thursday, four Clark County high school students questioned Cavazos, Cepeda, Wieman and Zamora about their stances on issues ranging from school start times, dress code enforcement and student mental health.

The conversations were hosted by Opportunity 180 and Leaders in Training, two local nonprofits that work to improve education and increase access to educational opportunities in Nevada.

The student-led “Flip the Script” discussion was streamed live from Level 9 Studios in Las Vegas. Bustamante Adams and Ford did not participate in Thursday’s conversation with students.

The issues

Cruz, who helped the students develop their questions, noted that the four-person team was comprised of all female students, something that was reflected in the questions, which touched on sexual harassment and disparities that young women face when it comes to dress codes at school.

“Those are questions that I wouldn’t have come up with, because it doesn’t affect me,” Cruz said.

The candidates were each given two minutes to respond to each question. They included questions on subjects such as:

— Why candidates are running for school board

— Disparities in school dress codes between boys and girls

— How to allocate more funding for girls’ after-school sports programs

— Improving school safety and mental health awareness in schools

— How to mitigate sexual assault against girls in school

— How to improve funding to keep teachers in the classroom

— Changing early school start times for high school students

— How to improve school lunch portions and make school lunches more nutritious

Nikole Phomninh, a 15-year-old sophomore at Las Vegas High School and one of the moderators of Thursday’s conversation, said she wasn’t well-versed in what the school board does or how it operates.

Ahead of the discussion, she said she began researching the candidates and asked friends and classmates what issues they thought were important at their school and needed to be addressed.

The most important question to her was about sexual assault allegations.

Despite not being old enough to vote, Phomninh said the experience showed her how serving in the role means taking in different people’s input and implementing it in a way that can benefit everyone in the community. She said she plans on making voting for school board a priority once she’s old enough.

“I see the hard work that goes into being on the school board,” Phomninh said.

District D

In District D, incumbent Irene Cepeda will face off against challenger and progressive advocate Brenda Zamora.

Cepeda told students she was running for re-election to make sure the board talks about student-centered outcomes at least 50 percent of the time.

Zamora, who joined the conversation virtually, said she was running to bring different voices to the table and develop more partnerships with community organizations.

“I just decided to run because I was listening and bringing up a lot of the stories from my community, a community I’ve done work in and just trying to bring their voice to the table,” Zamora said.

Following the discussion between Cepeda and Zamora, Phomninh said that she felt the candidates were similar on several issues. She also noted that Cepeda brought several years of board experience to the table, and Zamora could bring new input and ideas to the board.

Cepeda and Zamora echoed similar sentiments on wanting to see dress code policies that didn’t perpetuate racist or sexist practices and encouraging students to work with their School Organizing Teams to allocate more funding for girls’ after-school extracurricular programs.

“It’s important to see these policies as they intersect with racism, with sexism … so that way we’re not perpetuating policies that are rooted in systems of oppression,” Cepeda said.

On the issue of combating sexual assault against students at school, Zamora said schools could use male mentors to support students before they act out, while Cepeda said she supported more resources to support students who are assaulted and ensuring that victims are believed and that assaults are investigated.

District G

In District G, incumbent Linda Cavazos faces challenger Greg Wieman, former Eureka County School District superintendent.

Cavazos attended the Thursday forum in person and Wieman joined the conversation by phone more than 10 minutes late while at the Denver International Airport waiting for a flight.

Cavazos, a former Basic High School teacher who now has a private counseling practice, told students that if reelected, she hopes to finish some of the work that still needs to be done for the district to achieve its goals.

Wieman said he’s a retired educator and if elected, he hopes to “help the district perform better, especially for students.”

On the issue of budgets and keeping teachers in the classroom, Cavazos and Wieman agreed that recruitment should be a priority, with Cavazos emphasizing working conditions and better pay for teachers, while Wieman emphasized improving the teacher pipeline at local colleges and universities.

Regarding disciplinary issues such as fights and vandalism, Cavazos emphasized measures the district has already taken, but said that “hardening our schools” is not the answer and that the district must look at underlying issues.

Wieman said the safety and wellbeing of students and employees should be the foremost consideration.

“We need to make sure that there’s a safe, cordial, productive learning environment in every school,” he said.

Wieman said chronic misbehavior, disruption and violence cannot be tolerated, and issues need to be addressed immediately.

Contact Lorraine Longhi at 480-243-4086 or llonghi@reviewjournal.com. Follow @lolonghi on Twitter. Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.