3 advance: CCSD school board narrows search for new superintendent

The Clark County School Board voted Tuesday night to move three of four candidates forward in its search for the fifth-largest school district’s next leader.

The board voted not to move John Anzalone forward. It voted to move Jesse Welsh, Ben Shuldiner and Jhone Ebert to the next round of interviews.

The three candidates will move on to a community forum on March 10 and board interviews on March 11.

The decision follows Tuesday’s interviews of Shuldiner, superintendent of Lansing School District, and Ebert, Nevada superintendent of public instruction. On Monday, the board interviewed Anzalone, the superintendent of Camas School District, and Welsh, the CEO of Nevada State High School.

The Clark County School District has been without a permanent leader since former Superintendent Jesus Jara resigned in February 2024. Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, the district’s interim superintendent, announced in December that she would not put her name forward for the permanent position.

More than 40 candidates applied for the role by the Feb. 5 deadline, and the board narrowed it down to four candidates at last week’s meeting.

Anzalone had received an outpouring of public support in previous meetings. But on Tuesday, some community members expressed concern at his lack of experience managing an organization as large as CCSD. Although he had success as a CCSD principal and in Camas, they said, he lacked proven results in a district of this size.

But one component of the search has remained constant from the get-go: the importance of making the right decision.

“These are challenging times,” Marie Neisess, the president of the Clark County Education Association teachers union told the board on Tuesday. “We face threats from the federal level on a scale we have not seen in many years. We need a superintendent who can navigate through those challenges and puts us in the best position possible.”

Shuldiner and Ebert each gave 20-minute presentations on Tuesday and then responded to questions from the board. Anzalone and Welsh had done the same on Monday night.

Ben Shuldiner

“It’s time for a fresh start,” Shuldiner said of being a newcomer to CCSD in his presentation.

He highlighted his achievements in the Lansing School District, where he created universal pre-K, improved proficiency and graduation rates, improved vacancies in schools that were hard to staff and improved special education compliance.

“We can do it,” Shuldiner said of improving CCSD’s academic outcomes. “I know we can. Why? Because we did it in Lansing.”

Shuldiner got “into the weeds,” as he put it, on CCSD’s budget, saying that knowing a district was not an issue when it comes to budgets. He criticized the fact that the school district received just a 13-minute presentation from administrators in December, stating that it should have taken hours as they went through it line by line. Shuldiner did go through specific lines on Tuesday, such as pointing out the amount the school district spends on supplies alone.

He also emphasized his ability to work with unions. He said he had negotiated six bargaining contracts personally with his team, and ate cake at the end, he noted. The unions, he said, said it was some of the best negotiating they had experienced.

In response to why he was leaving Lansing, Shuldiner said that although he was beloved by his district, the opportunity to be in a place like Clark County, which he said had so much “latent potential,” was his dream.

“This is the place that I want to be for the rest of my career,” Shuldiner said.

Jhone Ebert

Ebert told the board she brings what CCSD needs most — the ability to “achieve impact at scale,” or make critical changes in large organizations.

She emphasized the importance of balancing empowering teachers and principals with tools as well as ensuring accountability.

“That freedom is there to lead, but if they’re not being successful, we also need accountability,” Ebert said.

As state superintendent, Ebert worked to hold CCSD accountable when it struggled with its budget this fall. She worked with Gov. Joe Lombardo to assign a compliance monitor to the school district after it struggled with a potential budget deficit. Prior to that, she sent a long list of questions demanding answers from Larsen-Mitchell about the budget errors.

She pledged to travel to schools across the district and work with staff and families to create a collaborative vision for the future.

“I do believe in choice for our students and parents. We want the Clark County School District to be the number one choice for all of our students and parents,” Ebert said.

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