How CCSD Turned 50,000 Community Voices Into A Five-Year Strategy

On this episode of the Destination District Podcast we share how CCSD’s strategic plan is built with more than 50,000 community voices and shaped into three clear priorities for the next five years. We hear from a student and three principals on what academic excellence, career-connected learning, and safe and supportive schools look like in real classrooms and hallways. 
• Defining “Destination District” as a place families and staff choose because they know what’s possible 
• Gathering input through surveys, interviews, and community dream sessions at historic scale 
• Naming three priorities: academic excellence, career-connected learning and durable skills, safe and supportive schools 
• Elevating student voice on hands-on learning, experiential opportunities, and practical limits 
• Describing academic excellence as clear learning intentions, success criteria, rigor, and equitable scaffolds 
• Showcasing STEM, project-based learning, robotics, and performing arts as pathways to deeper learning 
• Building career pathways through feeder alignment, individualized student plans, and real certifications 
• Creating safe, welcoming schools through daily visibility, relationships, fast family response, and belonging 
• Inviting new families to find the right fit through open enrollment and school communities that partner with parents 
Visit ccsd.net to find your part. 

Transcript

Opening Vision And Promise

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Welcome to the Destination District Podcast. Over the next five years, we are making a bold promise to our more than 280,000 students and their families. A promise of academic excellence, career-connected learning, and schools where every single child feels safe, known, and valued. In this episode, we're going behind the scenes of the most ambitious community engagement effort in our history. A plan co-designed by 50,000 voices. From the dream sessions that started it all to the principals bringing key priorities to life in our hallways. We're exploring the roadmap to our future. We are ready for the destination. The question is, are you? Let's get started. I'm Superintendent Joan Ebert, and this is the Destination District Podcast. Hello and welcome to Destination District, the podcast where we explore the voices and visions shaping the future of the Clark County School District. I'm your host, Joan Ebert. On Thursday, May 14th, the Board of Trustees and the public were presented with the Destination District, Clark County School District Strategic Plan. Over the course of the presentation, we laid the groundwork for three key priorities that will shape CCSD over the next five years. We will speak to Dr. Anna Colquitt, CCSD Chief Strategy Officer, and Rancho High School student Akila Bello about the steps that were taken in the creation of the strategic plan and take a top-down view of key aspects of the plan. Later, and I'm so excited about this, we'll speak to three amazing principals about ways their campus communities have embraced and shown growth in the three key priorities of the strategic plan. Dr. Colquitt, Akila, both thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. How are you doing? Doing well. Thank you for having us. Yay.

unknown 2:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So doing well.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Great. So let's do this.

Defining The Destination District

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Dr. Colquitt, the strategic plan is called destination district. So what does the destination district mean? You know, CCSD has this tagline. What does it mean? How's this plan going to shift and focus the district over the next few years?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

To me, the destination district is one that our students, families, our community, our partners, employees choose because they know what is possible here through our schools and the work that we're doing. And I think it's evident in the plan that we have that very well laid out and we are on our way to being the destination district.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

Awesome. So can you tell me a little bit about those three key priorities? What are they and how did they come to be?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yes. So

How 50,000 Voices Shaped It

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I'll start with how they came to be. And that is we spoke with our community in great depth. We talked to over 50,000 community members through a destination district survey, through community interviews, through our community dream sessions, and we heard what everyone wanted from our schools and their learning. And we pulled that input together and we formulated our three priorities. So, first, academic excellence. And this is really thinking about what students need academically so that they can do well in school and be prepared for what comes next. And then career-connected learning and durable skills. And here we're focused on thinking about those pathways for success and setting our students up to succeed both in their careers and with those durable skills that we know they need for life. And then finally, safe and supportive schools. We know that in order to achieve academically and in order to be set up for success in their career, they need to feel safe and supported in their school. And that's where opportunities grow. So that is how our three priorities came to be.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Yeah, I'm still amazed when you say 50,000, 50,000 people in our community. I know it's the largest amount of community input that has been had. And speaking with the LA Unified School District leadership there, they had gone through the strategic plan and didn't have as many responses. And they're they're a much larger system than ours. So interesting.

A Student’s Dream Session Takeaways

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Akilah, you were very instrumental in the dream sessions. I know you weren't didn't just attend one. Thank you very much because I know you're a very busy busy human being. So what was important? You know, what did you see? How did you contribute? And for those students out there, how should they be involved in the future as well?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Well, the first thing I want to say is that I feel like the community dream sessions were an important step to take. So everyone in the community could come out and show up and get their ideas out there. What do they think the future of education is? What do we need to do to turn Clark County into that destination district? And I think uh the importance of the dream session was just finding out all these ideas and these perspectives on what people had to say. I remember going to the community dream sessions. I had so many interesting conversations with both fellow students and adults who have a more realistic take and nuance when it comes to the situation. I was like, I've always felt, oh, I want more hands-on career opportunities. I want to be able to do more field trips, I want more experiential learning. And I also heard the adults say, like, we want these for our kids, but this isn't feasible at that point. And so it's an interesting conversation to have to see like there are limitations, but people, the district is working to bridge those gaps. And I feel like that was important. And so for other students who want to contribute to this work, I feel like the most important for that thing for them to do is to get their ideas out there. Show up to community to the community dream sessions or other events that are like that. Make sure to do those surveys so your opinion is accounted for and included. We want to hear ideas. I know that we want to hear ideas considering how much came into building out the strategic plan. And I feel like students don't feel heard. So, to all students out there who want to be heard, let your voices be heard. Come to the community dream sessions, do all the set surveys. I know they feel tedious, but you're heard, and we want to hear everything that you have to say and all your input on what we're trying to do here.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

That is wonderful. And again, thank you for coming to the sessions that you did. When you look at the strategic plan now, do you feel that your voice was heard? Do you see yourself and some of your input reflected in the plan?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I definitely see a lot of the concerns I had reflected in the plan. One of my biggest things when it came to my education journey was I want more hands-on opportunities. A lot of the best learning I've ever experienced came from field trips or hands-on opportunities, not just textbooks or busy work. It felt like the best learning comes from doing it yourself.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

So, Dr. Colquit, you, you know, leading all of this work, dreaming, planning. How is the future going to come to life?

Scaling Bright Spots Across Schools

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Well, let me just say the future is bright because we have set forth ambitious but achievable goals in this plan. And we have heard from our community, they are ready to make this our community's plan. This is not just for the school district. This truly is for the community. And so we are ready to bring this to fruition and dive in. And the good news here is that we see a lot of this work um underway in bright spots throughout the district. And so now it's the time to continue to scale those efforts, to build consistency and to ultimately create that district-wide vision that we have set forth in the plan.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Well, I want to thank you both for coming today and giving the audience the background on how the strategic plan was created and how we're going to look for it in the future and how shaping the future is important. When we return, we'll be joined by three of our outstanding CCSD principals to look deeper into the three key priority areas of the strategic plan.

Principals Put Priorities Into Practice

SPEAKER_04 8:51

As discussed with Dr. Colquitt and Akila, the strategic plan will have three key priorities. Priority one is academic excellence. Priority two is career-connected learning, and priority three is safe and supportive schools. Many of our schools are already well on their way to supporting these priorities. Here today to discuss how they are supporting us in becoming a destination district are Leslie Galvin, principal of Cannon Junior High School, Dr. Brian Wiseman, he is the principal at Bonanza High School, and Dr. Karen Morentic, principal of Connors Elementary School. Thank you all for being here. So let's start with priority

Academic Excellence With Purpose

SPEAKER_04 9:34

one. And principal Galvin, you know, academic excellence sounds like a broad term. And also sounds like, well, shouldn't you already know about academic excellence? So, you know, for a parent that's listening, and a parent at uh Canyon Junior High, what does excellence look like in a typical classroom?

SPEAKER_03 9:56

You know, it's changed a lot over the years. The typical, you know, academic excellence used to look like students sitting at a desk, filling out a worksheet, writing an essay. There was no application, there was no life in the classroom. Now it's really defined by intentionality and purpose. So students are coming home ready to explain to their parents what they're learning, why they're learning it, and how it's going to apply to their world in the future. And that comes from starting with their learning intentions and setting a clear goal for their learning and at the same time giving them their success criteria or the roadmap for how they're going to reach those expectations. So no longer they're not having to ask, well, how do I get an A? Because all of that criteria is laid out for them. Setting those high expectations and focusing on their tier one instruction within the classroom, that becomes very important and including that academic rigor. Yes, we do have to teach standards and we need to teach them to mastery, but how do we make that meaning, that learning meaningful for our students? And it's not about just reaching a few or hitting to that middle line. It's about equity and access for all. We're not lowering the bar. We are just building better ramps and scaffolds so that they can reach the high bar that we have set for them. Um, and bringing back to the portrait of the Nevada learner and those future-ready aspects for them to create empowered learners and global citizens for that true destination district. We have implemented STEM and project-based learning at our school. We were just recently designated as a STEM school by the state of Nevada, yes. We and we're getting them ready. We're creating those pathways with the STEM and the project-based learning to prepare them for high school. We have an award-winning mariachi program that continuously, you know, receives accolades. We had three students from our mariachi program that received all city designation for their respective instruments, and then we feed right into Del Sol Performing Arts Academy. We have an internationally recognized robotics team. We just got back from Houston. We were one of four teams out of 33,000 teams worldwide that were invited to Houston to showcase the new first Lego League game for next year. I mean, it was us, New York, Germany, and Mexico. And that is an experience that our students will not soon forget. So it's really about building that path of them and getting them ready for high school and beyond. So, well beyond a test score.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Yes. They get to demonstrate their competencies in many, many different ways. And obviously, if someone has not been to your school, they need to go because it sounds like they are just going to be energized when they walk your the school the school halls.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

I'm amazed every day by what our students are accomplishing.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Yay. Are you ready for priority

Career Pathways And Real Credentials

SPEAKER_04 12:55

two? Absolutely. I think you're up, Dr. Weisman. And so I I think we heard a little bit from you know middle school level, but right now at your high school, you've been working with a grant that actually has feeder alignment. So there's can you explain to our listeners what a partnership looks like to help build that career-connected learning?

SPEAKER_05 13:18

Absolutely. So we're we're working with Toyota Driving Possibilities. We have a five-year grant in our feeder alignment with Bonanza High School, Garside, and Red Rock Elementary School. And at our school, we're having a STEM initiative very much like Miss Galvin's. We are be in the process of becoming a governor's STEM school. We are working with the Buck Institute to implement to implement project-based learning in all of our classrooms.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Next year, we've also partnered with the 100% of your classrooms?

SPEAKER_05 13:43

Throughout the year, yes. So everybody's been doing project learning throughout the year. We're working with a company called Define Learning that has a PBL database that's not only aligned to the standards, but it also has real-world application and all skills. And so that's the part that was important to us to have meaning in our classroom.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

In the plan, we have marketable assets that our students will uh leave with. What kind of marketable assets do Bonanza High School students have the opportunity to leave with?

SPEAKER_05 14:10

So every student at Bonanza High School is going to have an opportunity to meet with their counselor and develop a one-on-one individualized plan. We want them to encourage, we're encouraging them to explore all their opportunities, whether it's college, career, military, the workforce, whatever it might be. But we have for our college-bound students, we have advanced placement courses, we have dual enrollment courses. Any college student is required to take both. We have CT courses that meet our students' needs, and we've been developing those throughout the years to match what our students are asking for. So every student has a path, they have a plan for life after high school, they have courses that match the path, and they become a marketable asset when they graduate, and they have those workable, employable skills ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Any certification that your students receive?

SPEAKER_05 14:51

Absolutely. We've got career and tech education certifications and construction management, we've got forensic science, we've got the original fire science program, and we work directly with the fire department. We have an EMT program. Our kids are going out into the field ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

That is lovely. That is lovely. So let's,

Building Safe Supportive School Culture

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Dr. Morantic, let's move on to you. Priority three, you are here specifically for safe and supportive schools. And when I looked at the data and went, wow, you know, how how did you do that? How do you make your school a welcoming environment for your students and the entire community?

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Well, I can tell you it did not happen overnight. I know that when I started at Connors five years ago, some of the concerns were that parents didn't feel welcome, staff didn't feel supportive, kids were scared to take risks in the classroom. And that's a huge concern because even when we look at academic success and we look at trying to get our kids involved, if they don't feel safe, if they don't feel supported, if they don't feel that their teacher cares about them, if the parents don't feel heard, we're not going to grow as a school and as a community. So some of the things that we did, simple things that we did, was just being visible. You know, we talk about, you know, how did our kids feel welcome when they came when they came into the building? We started outside of the building. So me and my leadership team are outside every day before arrival. We greet all of our students. We know their names, we know their families, we greet um our parents, and we make sure that they feel welcome the second they step onto our campus. We also have staff at the doors also greeting our kids so that when they're entering into the building, they are welcomed as well with smiles and just excitement that they are on campus. Our staff is ready to go so that when the kids come in the classroom, they're asking them how they are doing. And it's amazing just checking in with them every single day. We don't do just an activity that states all about me and here's my family. We have we know it's continued work every single day. So we make sure that our kids know that we know when they're there, we know when they're not there, and we all when we check in with them and when their families walk up, some of the things that are great is like, where's your brother today? And they'll say, Oh, he's not feeling well. And we make sure that we say, Well, make sure that you tell him Dr. Marentic said hello, and I hope he feels better soon. So it's one of those where our kids, we know their names, like I said, and that you know, we make that eye contact. So they know they're important and they know we're there for them. So that's just some of the ways that we make our kids feel great. We know our parents, they want to be heard. So when they call and they have questions and concerns, we do address it immediately. If we can't set up meetings right away, we do. And a lot of their comments back to us is thank you for calling us back so soon. And we reply with thank you for advocating for your child. Yeah. Because it's so important. And sometimes our kids don't feel that they can share or tell us things. And you know, so when our families can do that, we build that partnership and they know that it's it's through support that we are there for them. How can we help? How can we assist? How can we make sure we're getting your kid to school to feel safe, respected, and grow in our environment?

SPEAKER_04 18:03

Yeah, thank you so much. I want to go to your school and talk with some of your parents and make sure we sprinkle that sacred sauce across the entire district.

Welcoming New Families With Open Enrollment

SPEAKER_04 18:13

So last night at the school board meeting, one of the questions that the trustees asked for people that move into Clark County, right? We have open enrollment. So there's opportunities to attend many of our schools. How do you describe or how would you describe to a new family this is the destination district, this is my school? If the match isn't here for, you know, my school, here's the other school, right down the street where they can go. What is some advice that you would give to a new family? And anyone can jump in.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

One thing I think is great about Connors is that it's all about opportunities. We know that we are embedding high-quality tiered education, reaching for that academic success and really supporting kids with their interests and their talents so that they're motivated to want to learn. So within the school day, our kids are excited to learn, but we also offer so many things outside of the day, whether it's choir or Disney musical in schools, we have coding clubs, Spanish club, basketball club, garden club, art club. We really try to tap into anything and everything that gets our kids motivated. And we also do a lot of planning to make sure that they can participate in as many things as possible. So, you know, with Connors, we are excited to make sure that we're giving our kids everything and addressing the whole child. Um, and like I said, we put our learning first. We are the home of the Eagles and we continue to soar every single day. Love it.

SPEAKER_05 19:38

You know, but Anzo, we are about to celebrate our 50th anniversary. We're one of the original high schools in Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Yes, you are.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

And we just completed a three-year comprehensive modernization project. And our school, while it may be 50 years old, it looks brand new. It's bright, it's welcoming, it's inviting, it's friendly. At our school, we focus on a couple of things. The academics, we want to make sure that we're pushing our kids and that they are ready for the next step of their life when they graduate. Now we want to make sure that everybody's loved and cared for and welcomed with open arms. So every person, every parent, every student, every staff member, every guest, every visitor is gonna be welcomed with open arms and because we believe Bonanza High School is a great place for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Great. How about Canon? At Canon, it's just about transforming learners from consumers of information to producers of the future and being able to solve those real world problems. We want parents to be partners. When we think about a destination, one of my favorite destinations is Disneyland. And the reason why I like that is because everyone is treated not as a visitor but as a guest. You are a guest, and we are going to hold ourselves to the highest standards to make sure that we are meeting your needs, we are meeting your students' needs. We need our parents to be partners in the education and share their expertise because they are our guests, and we are making the learning come alive for students inside our walls every single day. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

Amazing. We have three amazing principals here, three different schools, but there are commonalities how much you care for each of your students, the community as well. Thank you for what you do, and thank you for being here with me this afternoon. Thank you, thank

2031 Goals And Community Invitation

SPEAKER_04 21:14

you. As we wrap up today's episode, it's clear that the Destination District isn't just a title on a document, it's a commitment to the future of Southern Nevada. By 2031, we aren't just looking for better test scores. We're looking for a 60% increase in literacy for our youngest learners. We are ensuring that 100% of our graduates walk across the stage with a marketable asset, a real-world credential, or college credit that opens the doors the day after graduation. And most importantly, we're building a culture where 95% of our students truly feel they belong. But we can't do this work alone. This plan was built on the dreams of this community, and it takes this community to reach the finish line. Whether you're a parent, a business leader, or a student, there is a place for you in this plan. Visit ccsd.net to find your

Season Wrap And Thank Yous

SPEAKER_04 22:13

part. What an amazing first season of the Destination District. Over the last nine episodes, we've heard from so many different departments, students, and educators about how their paths are leading all of us toward the goals that are outlined in our strategic plan. I want to thank everyone for an amazing school year and I wish you all a restful summer break. I would love to send a special shout out and thank you to the team behind the scenes. This was our first season of Destination District Podcast. From the CCSD Community Engagement Unit, we have executive producers Cade Cridlin and Kirsten Sear. A special shout out to our Vegas PBS producers and editors, Jeremy Halal, John DiMarco, and Amir Ismail. This has been Destination District, a CCSD podcast recorded at the Vegas PBS Podcasting Studio. Remember the destination is better when we get there together. Have a great day.