28 Apr Irene Adams Bustamente
Irene Adams Bustamente
for
Clark County School District F Trustee
2022 Questionnaire
Please share briefly what inspired you to run for this office and why you feel you’re qualified for the position.
There are three main reasons for my interest in serving as a CCSD Board of Trustees.
• I had three family members pass away within three days of each other last month and it reminded me how fragile life is and of my desire to leave behind a great legacy as a public servant.
• I am a new grandmother of a two-year-old little boy who will soon be entering into the CCSD Public School System. I feel compelled to use my gifts and talents to help advance positive academic outcomes for students.
• My diverse career experiences have afforded me the opportunity to develop a distinctive skill set that I believe would add great value to the CCSD School Board.
During my 18 plus years at MGM MIRAGE, I was responsible for developing and assisting in the oversight of new initiatives that involved national award-winning projects. This included corporate philanthropy, Champion Diversity Training, and Construction Diversity for CityCenter. Each of these projects required policies to be developed and shared across the entire organization, helping to facilitate multiple gaming properties to support a unified mission, vision and monitoring of budgets.
In my public service as a Nevada State Assemblywoman, I was quickly placed into a position of leadership my freshman year within Government Affairs. This and other experiences such as serving on Ways and Means, Chair of Commerce and Labor, Chair of Budget Subcommittees, Chair of Taxation gave me the well-rounded experience of working collaboratively with several stakeholders. I gained a reputation of collective problem solving and advancing positive outcomes for Nevadans.
My current position as Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer for Workforce Connections allows me to continue my service to Southern Nevada by aligning education, workforce, and economic development for the region’s needs. In just three short years, I assisted the new executive director to enhance and elevate the organization to a national award-winning entity. I specialize in building strategic alliances to benefit the region.
How do you propose that more funding be allocated to public education?
I would recommend that CCSD stay on track of using school-by-school data to better understand the current state of academic programming across our District and the critical areas in a student's K-12 journey wherein our system has created opportunities and access for some, and prevalent hurdles and barriers for others. Then I would share this data with several community stakeholders and business leaders to find funding solutions for our region.
Parents are frustrated with the performance of public schools, its apparent nonresponsiveness to the community, and its current poor performance with student outcomes. What are your thoughts on how we can support public education and change this situation?
You could evolve the support of public education by ensuring systems are in place for school-by-school data evaluation and being transparent with the community so together we can find solutions for our region.
How would you propose changing the current funding formula to make it more equitable for children from poverty, English Language Learners and special education students?
The Nevada Legislature passed a law in June 2019 to overhaul the state's decades-old and inadequate school funding formula. We are on our way to ensuring a more equitable plan for the key cost components of the formula.
There is a rise of bullying and racism in our schools. If elected, what steps would you make to ensure that our children can safely attend school?
I had the privileged to serve on the CCSD Superintendent's External Anti-racism Equity and Inclusion Taskforce Committee. The group focused on developing a comprehensive Anti-racism Policy. If elected, I would support adoption of the recommendations made by the Committee.
Comprehensive, age and developmentally appropriate, medically-accurate, inclusive sex education has been proven to improve students’ long-term health outcomes, yet it is not required that students be provided with this information in their sex-ed programs. Do you believe that public school sex-ed programs should be comprehensive, medically accurate, and inclusive?
Yes, I believe that public school sex-ed programs should be comprehensive, medically accurate and inclusive.
Do you support ending the use of pepper spray on students by the school district police? Yes or No, and why?
I would want to understand the reason of why pepper spray would be needed on a school campus and work together with the Superintendent, school district police and other community based organizations to suggest better alternatives.
Post Covid we have many students who have not been able to catch up in their learning. It is particularly alarming that the younger students, who did not acquire reading skills during remote learning, are very far behind in reading proficiency. At the other end, we have seen a drop in Nevada’s high school graduation rates, with minorities, special ed, and ELLs now suffering a significant graduation gap. How do we address the needs of the Covid generation?
I would start by ensuring resources for the mental well being of students and staff be a priority in order to address the effects of the COVID aftermath.
What is your position on legislation such as Don’t Say Gay, and forcing transgender children to use bathrooms of their birth sex?
I would not support legislation on this topic.
What is your position on restorative justice?
I support the comprehensive principals proposed by restorative justice.