District failure

In my 33 years of teaching, I never had as great a principal as Antonio Rael, who was just fired as principal of Clark High School (Dec. 11 Review-Journal). Mr. Rael transformed struggling Mojave High School in North Las Vegas into a school at which every student could succeed. We teachers did anything we could to benefit the kids. Mr. Rael was so successful he was promoted to area superintendent.

Today, he should be running the Clark County School District, but the district insists on running nationwide searches for superintendents instead of choosing someone from within who understands how to make our local schools successful.

Superintendent Jesus Jara is floundering so badly he tried to get rid of deans and has now fired the very man who should be superintendent. Brian Cram and Kenny Guinn, our last successful superintendents, were locals with know-how. Our nationwide searches for superintendents have reaped one failure after another.

Mr. Jara doesn’t have the backbone to stand behind a principal who introduces and enforces standards that are the foundation of every high-functioning school. Clark’s teachers apparently resisted increased observations. Why? The students and parents didn’t like a reasonable dress code and punctuality. These are basics in a well-run school.

How dare we do this to the very person who could make a difference in our pathetic school district?