Focus on the Future for Kids

The needs of our Clark County School District (CCSD) students are more pressing than ever as we emerge and recover from the pandemic and reimagine school for our children.

CCSD will receive approximately $770 million in federal funds over the next three years to ensure students and educators can accelerate as we return to school in the fall of 2021. The state of Nevada and local municipalities will also receive significant infusions of funding to support recovery efforts.

We have a unique opportunity to leverage these investments as we gather input, create a shared community vision for our children, and invest in our future.

Coming off of the success of several initiatives to support public education during the crisis, our community is poised to unite and create a shared vision answering the questions, “What is our community vision for our students and schools in Clark County? How can these federal funds help us get there? What is the north star that will drive student success?”

The first step of the Focus on the Future for Kids: Community Input Initiative is to gather community input on the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III) federal funds provided to CCSD through the American Rescue Plan. Input received will:

  • Be reported to the public, and to our state and municipal partners, so that federal dollars allocated to improve student achievement are spent in a way to maximize impact for kids
  • Provide a community-informed, kids-first agenda to allocate CCSD’s federal funds and other future community investments
  • Serve as the basis of a refresh to Focus: 2024 so it is aligned with updated priorities due to the impact of the pandemic
  • Establish a new approach to collecting community input and ensuring thoughtful integration of community priorities into CCSD planning

In collaboration with a small planning team, CCSD will coordinate the efforts of a broad range of community partners to collect and organize input directly from their constituencies and members. Among other questions, we will ask, “What should be true for our kids once these funds have been deployed?”

Leveraging community partners to conduct the input sessions will increase the degree of authentic participation. The planning team will provide a Ready. Set. Reimagine. Community Input Toolkit with technical assistance (as requested) to community partners so that input is gathered in a consistent way and can be provided to the public.

Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara will partner with the CCSD Board of Trustees, local municipal leaders, and state leaders to build buy-in and identify opportunities for coordination of resources as the District develops a final spending plan and set of proposed outcomes based on community feedback.

The use of federal funds will be Phase 1 in a minimum of a three-phase input process:

Phase 1A: Planning, External Alignment and Internal Communication (May 28, 2021 - July 2, 2021)

Phase 1B: Federal Funds Community Input and Report Out (July 5, 2021 - October 29, 2021)

Phase 2: Implementation Status and Plan Refresh (March 2022 - May 2022)

Phase 3: What’s Next in CCSD education? (September 2022 - November 2022)