Parents describe friction with principal of magnet school

Another magnet school principal found herself the target of complaints, as a small group of parents from Walter Bracken STEAM Academy told Clark County School District trustees Thursday they didn’t agree with Principal Stanica Sretenovic’s changes to the school.

Diana Ramirez, a member of the School Organization Team, said Bracken parents have felt shut out of Sretenovic’s decisions, from eliminating an after-school computer lab and group counseling sessions to replacing hot lunches with prepackaged food.

She added that she believes that Sretenovic was charged with improving the star rating of the school, which had slipped in recent years, but that parents wanted to be involved in doing so.

“Bracken has a family culture. This has really affected teachers and parents because they feel this is their family. But when they spoke up, they were shot down,” Ramirez said.

Sretenovic did not return a request for comment from the Las Vegas Review-journal.

But speaker Alma Avila told the board that Sretenovic had a target painted on her back since she took the job. Avila said that parents had grown accustomed to the previous principal, a 22-year school veteran who retired last year.

“Building those relationships takes time,” Avila said.

The board also approved a final budget for 2019-2020, which shows the district putting away the required 2 percent unassigned ending fund balance. But preliminary projections for 2021 show the district expects to post a $9.5 million deficit despite funding increases.

One of the night’s more dramatic moments took place outside of the boardroom, as maintenance workers confronted the district’s facilities chief, David Mckinnis, over changes to their schedule that would have them work from 2 p.m. to midnight for preventive maintenance and emergency repairs.

They said that the change puts an undue burden on workers who can’t coordinate child care for those hours and that many repairs — like roof repairs — can’t be carried out at night.

But Mckinnis said the workers were needed for maintenance that couldn’t be done while children were in classrooms. He also questioned why the maintenance department had 15,000 backlogged requests. Workers replied that the number of people in their department had been whittled down over the years.