CCSD Trustee Lola Brooks resigns prior to end of her term

Clark County School Board Trustee Lola Brooks has resigned from her position a month short of the end of her final term on the board.

“It’s been an honor to serve the public, and I feel my service really helped the board focus on student outcomes. I hope the new version of the board is able to continue this trend,” Brooks wrote in a message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I also hope the current board recognizes they shouldn’t be making significant decisions this close to the end of a majority of the board’s term.”

She said her departure, which went into effect on Thanksgiving Day, relates to personal challenges, and that she has decided to move out of state.

Brooks was elected in 2016 to represent District E, which includes Summerlin and parts of northwest Las Vegas, but had not sought re-election this year.

Lorena Biassotti was elected in November, and will take the seat in January.

Brooks is not the only School Board trustee not to seek re-election who stepped away from the board. Trustee Katie Williams resigned in September after the district attorney’s office filed a petition to declare her position vacant due to her no longer living in Nevada.

Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita said Williams’ departure was a reason for Brooks’ resignation.

“This essentially is the action of a defeated trustee. She has lost control of the majority support on that board, and doesn’t like the decisions that have been made recently,” he said. “So she’s picking up her marbles and going home because she can’t get her way.”

Williams and Brooks were part of a four-trustee-majority voting bloc during their tenure together on the board, which led to several 3-3 tie votes after Williams’ resignation.

The board appointed Nakia Jackson-Hale on Oct. 30 to fill the remainder of Williams’ term. Lydia Dominguez was elected in November and will take the seat in January.

Brooks has faced pushback from the union and some community members for her votes and comments during meetings.

Most recently, amid the Clark County School District’s budget issues, Brooks defended the administrators and said they were “catching a lot of heat.”

Amid the deficit, Brooks voted to approve a $50,000 audit from the Council of the Great City Schools, an outside group that has conducted reviews of other large school districts in the past. The motion failed in a tie vote in an Oct. 10 meeting.

Brooks’ decision comes with just two more board meetings left in her tenure: a Wednesday work session and Dec. 12 meeting, where the district will present its amended budget to the board.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Trustee President Evelyn Garcia Morales thanked Brooks for her service and said the board “will decide its next steps in line with its policies”

“Over her eight-year tenure as member, clerk, vice president, and president, she led the district through a pandemic and difficult times, ultimately leaving us in a better place. We wish her all the best in her next adventure,” Garcia Morales wrote.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.