CCSD board approves Boys & Girls Club MOU for J.D. Smith after municipalities raise first-refusal concerns

The Clark County School District Board of Trustees on May 15 approved a memorandum of understanding allowing the Boys & Girls Club to operate an after-school program at J.D. Smith Middle School, voting 6-1 after several trustees and municipal representatives asked legal staff to confirm the agreement would not conflict with existing interlocal arrangements.

Trustee George Stevens made the motion to approve the MOU and Trustee Cavazos seconded it; the motion passed by a 6-1 margin. Board discussion focused on whether the district must offer the city of North Las Vegas a right of first refusal under an older community access agreement and on the MOU’s limited scope to a single school.

Supporters said the program fills a local service gap. Doug Veil, director of parks and recreation for the City of North Las Vegas, told the board that his department provides before- and after-school SafeKey services at other elementary sites and asked the trustees to pull the consent item to allow time for municipalities and the district to reconcile existing agreements. An unidentified representative of the Boys & Girls Club told trustees the MOU would cover a single middle school and that the organization has an existing federal grant through Communities in Schools to provide programming.

John Okazaki, CCSD general counsel, said he had only performed a contract-level review and had not compared the MOU against other municipal agreements. After a quick review in the meeting he told trustees a community access agreement appears to contain a right of first refusal for a municipality, but said that a right of first refusal does not automatically make the MOU unworkable: the district would first offer the municipality the opportunity to operate programming at the site, and if the municipality declined the district could proceed with the next provider. Okazaki told trustees he would review the agreements in greater detail to identify any conditions that might apply.

Trustees asked for clarity on practical details. Trustee Johnson asked whether the MOU’s $30-per-child annual fee (listed in the document) was accurate; Todd Story, CCSD chief communications officer, confirmed the fee language in the MOU. Trustees also noted the MOU’s termination and renewal language and that the agreement is limited to one school. Several municipal representatives asked only for time to meet with district leadership to “hammer out” details and ensure historic agreements are honored.

The board vote authorizes the district to enter the MOU for J.D. Smith Middle School. The item’s written materials state the MOU is limited to a single school, that it will not supplant substantially similar programs where they already exist, and that the district retains final approval of placements. Trustees directed legal staff to review and confirm compliance with any existing municipal rights before implementation.

Next steps: the district’s legal office will review the June 1995 community access agreement cited by municipal representatives to determine whether and how a right of first refusal applies in this instance. The Boys & Girls Club representative said the organization is prepared to begin programming once contractual issues are resolved; no specific program start date was provided in the meeting materials or on the record.