By james art Friday, October 25, 2024 | 2 in the morning
Ten people will be considered to fill the short remainder of the term for a seat vacated last month by a Clark County School District board member.
The person selected to represent CCSD District B will serve the remaining two months of former board member Katie Williams’ term. Williams resigned in September after the Clark County District Attorney’s Office filed a court petition to have her seat declared vacant due to residency issues.
Metro police detectives determined she had been living in Nebraska, instead of North Las Vegas, for months and recommended she be charged with felony abuse of authority. She has not been arrested or charged.
The remaining six school board members will meet Wednesday to publicly interview the appointed replacement candidates, select one and swear in the same day.
District B’s full four-year term is also up for election this fall, with the next full term beginning in January. District B covers the northernmost urban and rural corners of the county.
The candidates for the temporary position are:
Lindsey Daly: A dentist by profession, Daly is a lifelong resident of the Moapa Valley and is heavily involved in civic life in the rural community northeast of Las Vegas. This includes a thorough knowledge of the four Moapa Valley CCSD schools that his children and grandchildren have attended. He also serves on the district’s sexuality education select committee and as a board member for the Moapa Valley Water District. He often advocated for rural schools.
Lydia Dominguez: Dominguez is one of two on the ballot for District B for the entire term. She is an Air Force veteran, a mother of CCSD students, and a former member of the local chapter of the far-right “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty. (When she gave up her membership this summer, she said she still supported the national organization.) Dominguez currently serves on the CCSD Attendance and Zoning Advisory Committee.
Robert Garcia: Garcia is an organizer with the progressive organization Make the Road Nevada, which advocates for working-class Latinos and people of color. In his application letter, he said public education is a human right.
Nakia Jackson-Hale: Jackson-Hale is an assistant dean at the UNLV School of Nursing and the mother of three CCSD students. In her application letter, she described being active in causes for women, children and the black community.
Mary Kerwin: Kerwin served on the school board in Troy, Michigan for two terms before moving to Las Vegas in 2018. She is a consultant who provides training to elected officials.
Kenneth Resendez: Rezendes is a retiree who previously served on the district’s attendance and zoning advisory committee. He is also active in church and youth causes.
Jose Solorio: Solorio, a political consultant, was a CCSD board member from 1993 to 1994, and his wife is a longtime teacher in the district. He helps raise five young grandchildren who attend area schools. Over the years, he also served the schools as a member of the attendance and zoning advisory committee and coached football and cross country.
Brenda Talley: An artist and former director at the College of Southern Nevada’s Performing Arts Center, Talley is a Mount Charleston resident who serves on the city’s advisory board. She has also served as president of the Nevada PTA and on several CCSD committees and task forces. She is a fourth generation Lasvegan with grandchildren in CCSD schools. There are schools in the area named after her great-grandmother and uncle.
Patrick Villa: Villa is a long-time professor of mathematics at CSN. In his application letter, he said he recognizes the obstacles some students face in the transition from high school to college and is eager to contribute to efforts that will improve their readiness for higher education.
Dane Watson: Watson served six months earlier this year as a non-voting trustee appointed by the city of North Las Vegas. He is a teacher union official with the Clark County Education Association, where he has served since 1998 minus two years as executive director of the Education Support Employees Association, which is CCSD’s union for employees who are not teachers, administrators or police. Prior to his career in education unions, Watson was a classroom teacher.
Interviews begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday at CCSD’s Greer Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road.