County Commission selects Pinecrest principal as school board trustee

The Clark County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint charter school principal Lisa Satory as a school board trustee.

Satory, who leads Pinecrest Academy’s Sloan Canyon campus in Henderson, was selected out of about 30 applicants.

A new state law calls for adding four non-voting members to the Clark County School Board next year. They’ll join seven elected members.

One trustee each is being appointed by Clark County, as well as the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. Clark County is the last municipality to make its selection.

County commissioners spent less than five minutes on the agenda item Tuesday. Satory was the only applicant who was mentioned by a commissioner.

“There are a lot of people here who have tremendous experience in education at one level or another, and we appreciate very much their interest and their willingness to serve,” Board Chairman Jim Gibson said.

Last month, Las Vegas City Council selected former charter school leader Adam Johnson to serve on the board. Henderson City Council named former Valley High School Principal Ramona Esparza-Stoffregan to the role, and North Las Vegas City Council picked one of its own councilmen, Isaac Barron, a history teacher at Rancho High School.

Non-voting members will serve a four-year term and will take the oath of office on Jan. 2. New trustees are expected to complete at least 30 hours of onboarding and training.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said she went through all 29 applications and many of them are currently school district employees, noting that would disqualify them from serving on the board.

But the North Las Vegas City Council appointed Barron, a current teacher in the district.

A district policy says current employees can’t serve on the school board because it’s a conflict of interest, but it’s unclear if that also applies to the non-voting members. A North Las Vegas city spokesperson said last month that Barron won’t have to step down from his teaching job.

About 140,000 of the Clark County School District’s students are in unincorporated Clark County, Kirkpatrick said.

A ‘comprehensive perspective’

Before joining Pinecrest, Satory worked at a few school district campuses as a teacher and administrator — most recently, as an assistant principal at Basic Academy of International Studies from 2014 to 2016.

“I have had the privilege of being a part of the Clark County School District (CCSD) community for a significant portion of my professional journey,” Satory wrote in her application to the Clark County Commission.

Satory also wrote she has served on school organizational teams at multiple campuses and that her husband has been an educator in the school district for 13 years.

“My involvement with SOTs has provided me with a comprehensive perspective on the educational landscape within CCSD, reinforcing my commitment to driving positive change within our school system,” she wrote.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.