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IN BUSINESS EDUCATION SCHOOL BOARD PROMOTES 24-YEAR VETERAN TO DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT By Paul Takahashi staff writer A ssociate Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky was introduced last week as the next deputy superin- tendent of instruction for the Clark County School District. A 24-year veteran of the school district, Skorkowsky has moved up the ranks from teacher and principal to academic manager and associate superinten- dent. During his tenure as associate superintendent, Skorkowsky worked with 108 of the district's 357 schools on curricula and aligning resources. As deputy superintendent, Skorkowsky will work closely with Superintendent Dwight Jones as part instruction. Skorkowsky "believes in the path we have taken to raise the academic bar and ensure every child is 'Ready by Exit,' " Jones said in a statement. "Pat's pro- fessional motto is 'Every student, every classroom, without excuses, without exception.' I think that's just right." Skorkowsky replaces Pedro Martinez, who was tapped to lead the Washoe County School District. Martinez, who was with Clark County for just over a SKORKOWSKY year, began his first year as super- intendent of the Reno-based school district on Wednesday. Under Martinez, the school dis- trict demonstrated improvements in student achievement, including gains in test scores and graduation rates. The district – considered by Education Week as a "drop-out epi- center" — increased its graduation rate by 6 percentage points to 65 percent this past school year. Skorkowsky vowed to continue to raise student of his "reform"-minded cabinet to boost classroom achievement and the educational initiatives intro- duced by Jones and Martinez in their first year lead- ing the fifth-largest school district in the country. "I believe that CCSD is on the right track to ensure that every child is 'Ready by Exit,' and I look forward to working with our staff to continue our path of reform initiatives," Skorkowsky said in a statement. "We need to stay the course, make corrections where we need to and let the reform vision for the district take root so each and every one of our students ben- efit from increased academic rigor." HEALTH CARE DOCTOR'S LICENSE SUSPENDED IN DRUG CASE By Cy Ryan staff writer T he medical license of Las Vegas physician Dr. Vinay Kumar Bararia has been suspended after his arrest for the illegal sale of drugs to a federal under- cover officer. The state Board of Medical Examiners said a hear- ing will be held in September to determine whether the suspension will be continued. The suspension said Bararia was arrested in March on charges he illegally sold the regulated drug Oxycodone five times. As part of his release, Bararia surrendered his federal certificate that permitted him to order, pos- sess, dispense and prescribe controlled substances. The examiners board said Bararia violated the condition of his pretrial release 11 times by order- ing and prescribing controlled substances at Cen- tennial Hills Hospital. The board said the public "is at imminent risk of harm" because of his sale of the drugs. Bararia, whose primary specialty is internal med- icine, has been licensed in Nevada since 2005. REPORT SHOWS 5 PERCENT INCREASE IN MINORITY HIRING SYSTEMWIDE tion points out that the percentage of CSN, FROM PAGE 8 the Nevada System of Higher Educa- tion, Hispanics made up 21.9 percent of all students in fall 2011 and 25.1 percent in fall 2010. The chamber argued that more of an effort should have been made to retain two Hispanic administrators who had recently left CSN. Vitaliano Figueroa accepted a position as vice president of student affairs at Valley City State Uni- versity of North Dakota after, the letter claims, being passed over for advance- ment at CSN. Edith Fernandez, who served as interim director of student initiatives at CSN until recently, left in search of a more permanent position. "I believe that the NSHE shares the same goal as the LCC with respect to diversity and we should support each other in this effort," Geddes wrote to the chamber. "The Board of Regents sup- ports a number of statewide NSHE ini- tiatives to increase diversity and inclu- while I believe it is important that the system continue to work with commu- nity leaders to find ways to better serve their specific interest, we must comply with Board of Regents' policies and law, which prohibit preferential treatment of any minority or protected group over another." | 6 AUGUST 2012 | CSN said it also wanted to "work to- gether" with the chamber on the issue. 13 The Nevada System of Higher Educa- tion declined to release details of the in- vestigation, citing attorney-client privi- lege and privacy concerns. "While I cannot discuss confidential personnel investigation, I am confident that claims of gross employment neglect and pos- sibly outright discrimination against Hispanic persons are unsubstantiated," Geddes wrote. information, based on this many strategic goals with the Latin Chamber and are hopeful that we may work together to benefit Hispanics and other under-represented minorities. In its letter, the chamber said that in- stances in which the college president appoints a new employee instead of going through the entire employment posting and application process de- prives the institution of the opportunity to consider all qualified candidates, in- cluding Hispanics and other minorities. It used as an example the hiring of the new director of government affairs and diversity initiatives. "We welcome the chance to sit down and talk about our concerns, and look sion in our institutions. Please note that more into the process that Richards has used in which some job candidates go through the whole search process while others he appoints," Trujillo said. "We are talking about taxpayer-funded positions here, and we are talking about transparency." Together, we stand a better chance of achieving more for our community." The 2010-2011 Diversity Report by the Nevada System of Higher Educa- "To reflect the statewide population distribution of 40.5 percent minorities, work still needs to be done to increase the number of full-time minority fac- ulty," the report states. At CSN, 20 percent of the faculty be- longs to a minority group, and 6 percent are Hispanic. "As the most diverse higher education institution in the state, CSN is dedicated to being an inclusive college reflective of the community we serve," the college said in an email statement. "We share full-time faculty belonging to minor- ity groups increased from 13.9 percent in 2000 to 18.8 percent in 2010 system- wide.