Clark County schools started the first day of the new school year on a high note. 

During a Monday press conference, Superintendent Jhone Ebert touted the work the district is doing to improve academics, particularly in math and literacy, and reduce teacher vacancies that in the past have left schools scrambling to make do with substitutes at this time of year. 

She also thanked community partners such as local municipalities for their work to improve traffic safety around schools following a particularly tragic school year and the Las Vegas Desert Dog lacrosse team for helping the district offer the recently authorized school sport starting immediately, a year earlier than district officials had anticipated. 

"So I often say, communities solve community problems," Ebert said. "When the Clark County School District succeeds, Southern Nevada succeeds."  

However, chronic absenteeism remains one of the district's top challenges, Ebert said. While the district has lowered its chronic absenteeism rate to 28 percent for the 2024-25 school year, down 12 percentage points from its peak five years ago, it still remains higher than its prepandemic level of about 22 percent. 

"I think we still have folks that, out of the pandemic, don't feel like being in the school building is important, but it is," Ebert said. 

Accelerating learning

One of the district's goals in its 2026-31 strategic plan is to increase math and literacy proficiency in grades 3 through 8 by 50 percent. 

This effort comes as the state prepares to implement a policy to retain students in third grade if they are not reading at grade level beginning in 2028. Superintendents such as Ebert have spoken out against the mandatory retention requirements and plan to ask lawmakers to support repealing it. 

"Without the law in effect, we do currently in some instances hold back students because it's the right thing to do for that child," Ebert said in an Aug. 3 interview. "People are just asking to make sure that we look at each and every child as an individual." 

During the first day of school, district officials recognized James Cashman Middle School for its improvements in math during the 2025-26 school year. According to officials, preliminary data shows that 25.3 percent of students were proficient in math, an 8 percent increase from the previous year. 

Ebert noted that schools typically see their year-over-year math proficiency increase by 2 percent to 3 percent at best. 

Principal Rachel Samuel credits the progress to the school's teachers, kids and its high-quality curriculum. In addition, the school provided some students with two periods of math instead of one to give them extra time to work on the subject.  

"I want to give credit to our kids because if they are given the resources, they are here to learn. And then we have our teachers," Samuel said. "Without teachers, we cannot do this."

About 17,000 students at 16 elementary and middle schools that feed into Western and Desert Pines high schools will get math and literacy tutoring opportunities as part of a pilot program the district launched this year in collaboration with the Clark County Education Association teachers union. 

Feeder and high schools in the pilot program will get to work more closely together to build "instructional coherence." The pilot will also open the door to more cross-campus teacher collaborations. Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Jesse Welsh noted that the teachers from both the Desert Pines and Western tracks came back to work early to begin collaborating as teams and establish cohesive expectations across their campuses. 

In addition, Welsh said the district has placed math strategists at middle schools participating in the pilot program, such as J. Harold Brinley, to accelerate math learning. He added that the elementary schools will get additional school time to focus on literacy. 

Ebert, a former math teacher herself, said she wants to make sure students are challenged at school so they get the most out of their learning. 

"We want our children to struggle … with learning because that's how you grow," she said.  

Teacher vacancies way down

J.D. Smith Middle School in North Las Vegas is starting the school year with just two of 71 teacher positions unfilled. That's six less vacancies than it started with the previous year. 

Principal Hallie Loewy said she has 18 applicants interested in one of the vacant positions so she's hopeful it will be filled by the end of the week. 

There's about 170 vacancies out of more than 15,000 classroom teaching positions districtwide, a significant improvement from four years ago, when it had more than 1,300 teacher vacancies, according to district data. So far, the district has hired about 530 new teachers for the new school year. 

Nicole Kim, who is in her third year as a teacher and at J.D. Smith, recommends new teachers take things one day at a time and enjoy the small, positive moments with students. 

"That's what keeps me coming back for more," Kim said. 

Lower student enrollment

Like many other districts, enrollment is down in Clark County, although there may be silver linings to the trend.

The district's enrollment has decreased by 40,000 students over the past six years as birth rates fall and more families choose alternative education options such as charter schools. Ebert recently said the district is projecting to enroll around 280,000 students this school year. 

At J.D. Smith, the lower student enrollment has also meant smaller classes — Kim said there are fewer than 30 students in her math classes. Loewy said the smaller classes will make it easier for sixth graders to adjust to the transition from elementary to middle school. 

"They are going to get a little bit more individualized intervention with their English and math teachers, which really helps," Loewy said.