Douglas County School Board holds meeting to discuss superintendent search

MINDEN, Nev. (KOLO) - On Tuesday evening the Douglas County School Board held their regularly scheduled meeting. Two agenda items of note were the search process for the new superintendent as well as discussing a new contract for legal counsel Joey Gilbert.

In the meeting, the board went around in a circle to discuss all six superintendent candidates. To keep transparency for the parents and staff in attendance, they talked about what they like and don’t like about the applicants. The board narrowed it down to three candidates: Angelo Alvarado, Patrick Peters, and Louise Simson. The board said that they liked that Alvarado would come to the district with superintendent experience. However, the district he comes from is very small, with a student population of only 300. In Douglas County, one school could have 300 children alone. Mr. Peters was appealing because he not only has a masters in education, but has 30 years of experience, 22 of which were in a leadership role. But, Mr. Peters doesn’t have superintendent experience under his belt. When it came to Simson, she too has superintendent experience but also comes from a district smaller than Douglas County. The board wondered if she’d be able to handle a budget for a larger school district.

During the public comment portion of the evening, many parents and staff suggested that acting superintendent, Jeanie Dwyer, take over the role permanently. The board considered this but decided to move forward with interviewing the final three candidates. They will hold those interviews at the June 11 school board meeting to interview all three applicants publicly.

When it came to Joey Gilbert’s contract, the board presented a revised draft that they feel aligns with the districts needs. In it, they specify that Gilbert serve and be responsive to the board over just the superintendent. It was this reason, they said, they fired Maupin, Cox & LeGoy because they claim they only listened to former superintendent Keith Lewis and were unresponsive towards the board. They agreed to keep Gilbert’s contract as he presented it to them. Marty Swisher, with We Deserve A Better Board, says he also wants to see Gilbert listening to the board.

“Who directs Joey Gilbert and his law firm to do work? In the past nine months him and his firm have done work that have not been authorized by the district or by the board and its costs the district thousands and thousands of dollars,” Swisher said.