CCSD outlines new procedures after audit flags recruitment trips
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The Clark County School District says its current CCSD leadership has put additional procedures in place after a state legislative audit found there were wasteful recruitment trips made around the country.
These trips occurred during the time of the previous superintendent.
This audit looked at district spending between July 2021 and June 2024.
It found that some of CCSD's recruitment trips were ineffective and didn't follow travel policy, something Anna Marie Binder says she spoke up about as a member of the district's Audit Advisory Committee.
Binder brought up her concerns about the district's travel policy during a February 2024 meeting.
“With what happened with those recruitment trips in our existing policy, travel outside of the continental US would've required the superintendent's direct authorization. And that's something that I haven't really seen a clear answer on whether he did give that or not,” said Anna Marie Binder, a CCSD Audit Advisory Committee member, during the February 2024 meeting.
She's referencing CCSD recruitment trips that made headlines at that time.
A recruitment trip to Miami cost $32,400. Seventeen district staff attended over six days, including the Fourth of July holiday, according to auditors.
No teachers were hired from the trip.
Another trip to Honolulu involved 8 staff members and cost more than $23,000.
Ten employees were hired for a cost of about $4,600.
After a state audit, auditors found these and other trips were ineffective and often didn't track any of the results.
Some of these same concerns were brought up by Binder in that 2024 meeting.
“This particular policy hasn't even been revised since 2009, and we're in 2024, so we're going to see some updates to it,” said Binder.
At that meeting, there was only discussion and no action taken.
But the state audit completed this year is coming with some recommendations that CCSD says it is taking.
“Operationally, the people that made those choices back then they don't even exist in our in our leadership anymore, which I am extremely happy about,” said Binder.
CCSD, in a statement on Friday, said, "The Clark County School District is dedicated to ensuring fiscal responsibility and accountability.
Therefore, under current CCSD leadership, additional procedures have been established, including:
All recruitment trips must focus on current staffing needs related to Special Education and Related Services, including autism teachers, School Psychologists, and Speech-Language Pathologists.
There must be a verified reason for each trip, with multiple career fair and/or higher education institution visits, and recruiters must return with data supporting the number of potential candidates they made contact with and their contact information.
Recruiters are also required to follow up with all potential candidates upon conclusion of each trip.
Recruiters are now required to acknowledge that they have received professional learning regarding appropriate spending and oversight.
It is important to note that recruitment trips not only focus on current vacancies and staffing needs, but Human Resource Unit staff also work to forecast attrition and retirements based on licensure. This is advantageous due to the nature of the evolving workforce in Southern Nevada and the ability of educators to leave or retire mid-school year."
“We live in 2026, and sometimes you cannot keep operating with internal and existing policies that were written in the 80s, 90s, even in the early 2000s, right? Like society changes, things change, but that travel policy definitely is one that is, to me, I think was so originally intentionally left big and ambiguous to leave leadership. A lot of the flexibility to do things that they have done historically, but again, we don't right now,” said Binder.
Binder says she's hopeful the district travel policy is moving in the right direction.
“They can do things without even updating the policy, and so that's actually what had already happened. So they had already changed internal functions without even having to change the policy, but for transparency and accountability. We have to update that policy,” said Binder.
Binder believes there are currently several different policies under review, regardless of the audit, to update old policies.
She says overall she has seen more transparency with the new administration that she feels will translate into needed changes. She shared an example of the new CFO's handling of school budgets.
“That's why this year you weren't getting feedback about confusion of the budget. There was no question exactly how that money was being calculated, and that was because he had heard it was an issue from the principals,” said Binder.
The state audit that Tiffany referenced also found issues with some contracts and incentives by CCSD during that same 2021 to 2024 time frame.
It said CCSD used $6 million of federal COVID relief dollars for a scholarship program but didn't track what percentage of the student interns became employees.
When it comes to procurement card use—these are company-issued cards—the audit uncovered that CCSD needs better controls, citing inappropriate purchases.
For example, at CCSD, over $1,000 was spent on mobile massage service as part of a teacher appreciation event.