PHOTO/Jeff J MiTcHell/THinksTOck
Special education students are occasionally the subject of parent complaints in Washoe County. It’s a touchy area when the matter becomes public.
Two suits against school chief Washoe schools superintendent Pedro Martinez is facing trial in a lawsuit for allegedly interfering with school district contracts and targeting one business in particular. The suit was filed last year but never came to light during the dispute over Martinez being put on paid leave. It was reported last week for the first time by KTVN reporter Terri Russell. Also last week, former Washoe County School District police chief Mike Mieras finally went to court over his June 27 firing by Martinez, suing both the superintendent and the school district. The 2013 lawsuit involves seven architectural firms with school district contracts to upgrade school locks and other jobs. In September 2012, MARTINEZ shortly after he became superintendent, according to the suit, Martinez contacted each firm and told them to halt “their contractual relationship with plaintiff.” In the court filing, contractor Elkhorn Consulting said there was no reason or authority for “for Martinez to interfere” and that his order cost Elkhorn more than $100,000 and damaged it with future business contracts. The suit also says Martinez “intended to do harm” to Elkhorn. The school district’s attorney tried to get the suit dismissed but failed, and it is expected to go to trial in February. In the Mieras lawsuit, Martinez is accused of a retaliatory firing, claiming that over a two-year period, Mieras reported a number of allegedly improper actions by Martinez and the school district counsel involving violations of policy and criminal probes and was fired as a result. The suit says Martinez fired Mieras just short of 20 years in his pension plan, with the result that he vested at a lower rate, which will result in a lost of funds.
Toxic waters Nevada placed sixth in the nation in the toxicity of materials dumped in its waterways, according to Environment America, a research and policy organization. Nevada did not place in the top 10 states in the volume of toxic releases. It was when the releases were gauged for level of toxicity that the state went up near the top. Nevada scientist Glenn Miller said the annual report of toxic releases in the states by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—which usually ran Nevada near the top—are not all that useful, because they rank states by sheer volume, and some substances pose little threat. In February, the EPA ranked Nevada second in its annual list. But Miller said while raw numbers on volume of releases may not be helpful, more detailed numbers can be. For instance, Environment America also reported that Nevada’s North Fork Humboldt River Watershed was the third worst in the United States when weighted by toxicity of releases. That watershed received the largest release of carcinogens among local watersheds in the United States and the most toxicant releases that foster developmental damage. This is of greater concern, he said, noting that mining waste dumps play a role. “You’ve got waste rock dumps, high elevation, lots of water,” he said, pointing to the Jerritt Canyon mine and waste site as an example. The result is that water carries toxins away and they migrate into waterways at lower elevations.
—Dennis Myers
8 | RN&R |
SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
Compliant State: Special ed complaints on decline in Washoe The Washoe County School District is making steady progress on special education issues and is on the verge of being by in full compliance with federal Dennis Myers requirements, according to a Nevada Department of Education official. “Further, from my perspective along with evidence-based information, I believe Washoe County School District (WCSD) has made improvements in ensuring compliant practices relative to special education over the page year,” wrote state special education director Marva Cleven in an email message to Washoe County schools superintendent Pedro Martinez.
“I have confidence that the district will follow through.” Marva Cleven state special education director The message described changes for the better in Washoe County and said only a single nearly-completed response to a parental complaint prompted a letter from the state to WCSD about meeting a federal compliance deadline. Cleven wrote the message, a copy of which was obtained by the RN&R, after the Reno Gazette-Journal published an article portraying the special education situation in Washoe County as fairly confrontational and harsh between the state and the district.
The RGJ piece, reported by Siobhan McAndrew and published Aug. 28, ran under the headline “State tells school district to make changes or risk funding.” It described a letter sent to the school district by state schools superintendent Dale Erquiaga. The letter references the individual education program (IEP) drawn up in response to a complaint from a parent, Larry Dailey, about his daughter’s services. The RGJ article read in part, “In his letter to the school district, Erquiaga said the district did not follow a checklist to monitor the requirements laid out in Dailey’s daughter’s IEP. The letter mandates that training for all special education teachers, related service providers and representatives regarding the policies and procedures checklist be completed by the district by Sept. 30. It says by Oct. 1, the district must notify all parents of children with an IEP during the 2014-15 school year that there is checklist. It also mandates that the IEP checklist be implemented retroactively for all students at the same school as Dailey’s daughter from January to June and for those missed items provide compensatory education services. “Marva Cleven, the director of special education for Nevada Department of Education, said she has never seen a letter like this go out to a school district. She said it is a tough
message to the district to fix things that fell through the cracks. Despite a warning that says the district’s noncompliance could result in the loss of federal funds, she said that is unlikely. ‘That has never happened in Nevada,’ she said, but added there is no room for mistakes involving children with special needs.” When she read the RGJ article, an apparently angry Cleven fired off the message to Washoe Superintendent Martinez telling him that the article misrepresented her interview with McAndrew and that she had told the journalist that the state department has confidence that the Washoe district had made progress and would continue to do so. The reporter declined to respond in detail but said she stands by her reporting. Cleven’s message to Martinez said that of six corrective action plans (CAP) in response to six complaints against WCSD, the state had already received five CAPs and the sixth was “partially fulfilled.” All such complaints must be “100 percent” complete in order for compliance to be achieved, she wrote, and that sixth uncompleted CAP was the only reason the Erquiaga letter went out to the district. In an interview this week, Washoe special education director Frank Selvaggio said he received the Erquiaga letter on Aug. 22 and completed the last CAP and sent it off to the state on Aug. 26, two days before the RGJ article appeared. There are 8,400 special education children in the district and nine complaints have been filed with the state, six of them found to warrant action. “It says that we will respond appropriately when these things come up,” said Selvaggio, describing the content of the CAP. He said he could not respond in detail about specific complaints because of privacy concerns. He blamed himself for the last CAP not being delivered until Aug. 26, saying that an aide was burdened with work and he didn’t realize it until late. “We are making progress in several areas,” Selvaggio said. Cleven’s message to Martinez singled Selvaggio out for attention, saying that his work had brought the school district up to speed on special education issues. “Frank Selvaggio has been highly proactive in ensuring that compliance is at the forefront of district priorities,” Cleven wrote. “I began meeting monthly with Frank
