CCSD Candidates – District E

Carlo Meguerian

Q&A with Carlo Meguerian

Question:

Why are you running for CCSD Trustee? What is your vision of success for this role? 

Answer: 

We need to do better for our kids, support our teachers and parents to help students at school and home. I’m also running for transparency and accountability, we need to hold the school board, it’s members, the superintendent , superintendent’s staff, school administrators, teachers and parents responsible for allowing our students to fail and drop so low in academia, we need to do better. We need to work with our community business owners to help the schools to help students.

What success looks like, higher test scores, lower dropout rate, safer schools, accessibility for all students to succeed, we also need to put a spotlight on young people’s mental health, parents reengaging in their child’s education.

my goal is to bring Determination, Education and Inspiration to our community.

Question:

How do you define student success? What experience do you have and what role do you intend to play in advocating for student success?

Answer:

book smarts isn’t the only way to success, we need to also teach our students to be a positive impacted on our community and be a productive member of society.

I plan on being out in the community every chance I get, get schools and small businesses together to help students learn basic life skills and work ethic.

Question:

On the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), fourth-grade students, in Nevada, scored 6 points lower in math and 7 points lower in reading when compared to 2019. If elected, how can you use your position to ensure Nevada stops following this national trend and starts leading the way for student outcomes?

Answer:

we need to open the books, get rid of useless spending free up money to pay better teachers and to get parents more involved in their child’s education

Question:

What, if any, barriers currently exist to educational excellence and equity for every student? If elected to the Board of Trustees, how will you help eliminate these barriers?

Answer:

I feel majority of the board of trustees do not have the students best interest at heart, the way they’ve voted has only hurt the education system and has lowered the standards and crippled the education system. We need to raise the standards again and give our educators and parents every tool we can to get our students up to par and help them excel in the future.

Question:

What do you believe are the top three most persistent challenges facing the CCSD Board of Trustees? What is an example of a bold approach you would propose to address one of those challenges?

Answer:

Lack of accountability- I will vote to hold myself and my fellow board members accountable for our actions.

Parent involvement- get out talk to parents and see how we can get them to be more involved in their child’s education

Lack of qualified teachers- Open the books, work with state legislators to cut unnecessary expenses from the budget and pay qualified teachers more money to come to CCSD.

Question:

In January four appointed members were added to the Board of Trustees. How will you leverage the expertise of these appointed members to best serve students? Do you think the appointed members should be voting members? 

Answer:

I think those member can have a voice, but since this is a new program they shouldn’t have a vote just yet.

Question:

Research suggests that more than 50% of a board meeting should be focused on student outcomes. How would you ensure the board allocates this amount of time to student outcomes?

Answer:

I feel every meeting should allow time to discuss student outcomes and whats best for the students, as a board member I will voice that to the other members and the community.

Question:

If elected to the Board, how would you approach challenging conversations and/or criticisms that might arise from fellow Board members, stakeholders, and the broader community?

Answer:

I will listen to them and if they make a good case and there are things I need to change to better myself and the board to put education first, then I will work on those.

Question:

What key indicators would you use to assess the performance of CCSD’s Superintendent? How would you hold the Superintendent accountable?

Answer:

School Curriculums

Teachers reaction to his/her decisions

Student engagement

Parent participation

budget allocations

Student success

If they didn’t meet standards they would be removed, we also need to do better on the contracts we give the superintendent, they shouldn’t get paid for failure.

Question:

In a recent survey, 77% of Nevada residents agreed that parents should be able to send their children to the public school they feel is best for their child, even if it is outside of their neighborhood. Do you agree? Please explain your reasoning.

Answer:

Yes, school choice is very important, also that means we need to look at the lower performing schools and put better time and resources into those schools.

Question:

The following question was submitted by a current public high school student: How will you ensure students are put at the forefront of the decision making process as a member of the Board of Trustees, and what accountability measures would you put in place to make sure this happens? 

Answer:

This is a great question, first thing that needs to happen, students need to be more involved and show up to school board meetings, also is the board isn’t putting students at the forefront of their decisions then they aren’t doing their jobs, as a school board trustee I will always make sure the students voices are heard and their best interests are put first.