Meet the candidates for District E Trustee on the Clark County School Board
Both candidates running to represent District E on the Clark County School Board agree that the current board needs a change. But what that change would look like — and how they would go about achieving it — are different.
Teacher Kamilah Bywaters and Lorena Biassotti, an outspoken parent and former vice chair of Moms for Liberty, will compete to represent Summerlin and parts of northwest Las Vegas. The two placed first and second in the June primary, with Bywaters getting 480 more votes than Biassotti.
Bywaters serves as the president of the Las Vegas Alliance for Black School Educators and said that her work as an educator — she’s a licensed teacher who currently substitutes in the district while receiving her PhD in special education — makes her the best fit for the job. Her 6- and 8-year-old children attend CCSD’s Abston Elementary School.
Biassotti describes herself as a “common sense” candidate. She homeschooled her children during COVID-19 due to frustration with mask mandates, and currently has two children in CCSD and two in private school. She is running on a platform of “parental rights” — a term typically invoked by opponents of what they call a cultural ideology such as books with transgender themes and critical race theory.
Politics
The school board is a nonpartisan position, but politics are at play in this election.
Bywaters said her primary goal would be to establish a positive culture and climate, both on the board and throughout the district, that values every student and human being within the education system.
While she said she is not explicitly bringing politics into the role, just like religion, politics is part of people and shapes their beliefs.
“People are who they are. You have the beliefs and the thoughts and the ideologies that you have. My personal opinion is that most people are not able to separate who they are from the work that they’re going to do,” she said.
Biassotti served as the vice chair of the Clark County chapter of Moms for Liberty. The national organization, which has been labelled an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was born from outrage over mask mandates during the pandemic.
Biassotti announced her departure from the group on Aug. 29. She told the Review-Journal she left due to personal reasons, and that she still believes in its mission.
“We want the same outcomes, same mission, but internally and locally, there were just conflicts that I didn’t find myself communicating and being on the same page with,” Biassotti said.
Previous involvement
Bywaters and Biassotti have both frequented board meetings, where they have expressed their dissatisfaction with trustees and policies.
Biassotti first became an outspoken person at board meetings during the pandemic, when she opposed mask-mandates. She has since spoken out about cultural issues, such as her opposition to an anti-racism policy. She described herself as feeling unwelcomed by the school board, and making speeches in which trustees would get up and walk away, and would block her on social media.
As a trustee, she said she would be more receptive to feedback.
In the wake of the resignation of Trustee Katie Williams, who was found by the district attorney not to live in the state, Bywaters told the board at a Sept. 12 meeting that it had done a disservice to the community.
“I cannot wait to get on this board so that we can do a review and revision and update of all of the policies,” she said.
Bywaters encouraged everyone to vote.
“Our community has waited for decades to move the needle in the Clark County School District, and it’s important that we make a wise decision so that together we can move forward in unity,” Bywaters told the Review-Journal.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.