Board revives attendance advisory board; chair appoints self and delegates parent-selection process

Trustees moved to reconstitute an advisory board to review school attendance, a body the board said was required by statute in the late 1990s and had lapsed since the COVID-19 era.

The board chair said he intended to appoint himself to the committee; he announced the appointment during the meeting. Superintendent C.J. Anderson described the statutory framework for the committee and the membership the law requires: a juvenile-court probation officer appointed by the judge(s), a law-enforcement representative working with juveniles appointed by the court, a district attorney appointee, the district trustee appointee, a parent appointee, a school counselor or teacher appointed by district leadership, a deputy sheriff appointed by the county sheriff, and a child-welfare agency representative.

The board next discussed the process to select the parent or guardian representative. Trustees endorsed a district-managed application process: district staff will collect parent applications, screen them and present a recommended candidate to the board. Superintendent Anderson said the Nevada Revised Statutes provision cited in the meeting requires the president of the board to make the appointments; the board agreed the superintendent would manage recruitment and vetting and that the chair would make the formal appointment when the process concludes.

Board members said they welcomed the committee’s reactivation and noted community partners and juvenile-justice stakeholders would supply several seats by court or agency appointment. No formal contested vote was recorded beyond the chair announcing his own appointment and the board endorsing the recommended selection process.