Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 | 2 a.m.
A sitting Clark County School Board member and vocal opponent of the conservative organization Moms for Liberty wants to move forward now that two former associates of the controversial “parents’ rights” group are set to join her on the board.
Linda Cavazos is the most-tenured CCSD school board member, a progressive who staunchly backs the district’s antiracism policy and its policy supporting transgender and gender-diverse students. She has called Moms for Liberty “a cancer.”
It’s a group whose supporters have demanded CCSD remove library books with sexual and queer content, limit sexual education materials and repeal a state-mandated district policy to provide individualized support plans for students with diverse gender identities and expressions while often accusing progressives like her of being “groomers” and “perverts.”
It’s a group that civil rights watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an anti-government extremist organization.
Two of the four likely winners of last week’s school board election, Lydia Dominguez and Lorena Cardenas Biassotti, were members of the Clark County chapter of Moms for Liberty until they quit for personal reasons this summer. Both expressed continued support of the group’s conservative ideals after leaving the local chapter, which Biassotti helped found.
And both have cleared their opponents in the election by wide margins. Dominguez, running out of District B, which covers the furthest north urban and rural corners of the county, was ahead of her opponent by 12 points as of Friday morning, 56% to 44%. In District E, which includes Summerlin, Biassotti was winning by 16 points, 58% to 42%.
Cavazos is sympathetic to the parents of gender-diverse children who have called her expressing fear, defeat and shock. She feels for the parents who she said told her they want to send their kids to private school but can’t afford to. She said school board members need to represent all parents and students, including families with gender-diverse children.
Cavazos said she can’t do anything about how voters decided, but she can look for commonalities with her incoming colleagues.
“I try to balance the pros and the cons, and I’m going to choose to believe that the new people that are coming in, that they went for this and they won these elections to try to make a difference,” she said. “Even though some of their ideology may not agree with mine and other trustees, they ran for a reason. If we can capitalize on that desire to serve and to make a difference, I think it’s going to be an opportunity for this new board to work collaboratively and try to listen to everyone, and move forward.”
Dominguez is a U.S. Air Force veteran who was once stationed at Creech Air Force Base near Indian Springs. She said she leans on her military experience when there is conflict.
“I think that we need to remain focused on the goal, which is the students and our staff. When I encounter a situation where there is a lot more conflict — personal conflict, or even philosophical conflict — I think it really goes back to what is the law, and what is in the best interest of our students,” Dominguez said.
She said, in this order, that she wants to immediately prioritize the search for a new permanent superintendent, making sure parents feel heard, and ensuring safer schools. She also wants to treat the rural schools in her district as uniquely as they are compared with the urban and suburban schools in the valley, and she wants to learn more about what went into the district’s decision this year not to reopen the storm-damaged Lundy Elementary School on Mount Charleston and possibly call for another vote on the matter.
The right superintendent, to her, is somebody who is detail-oriented and a transparent communicator, someone who’s focused on having a balanced budget, and someone who will listen to parents and staff. She wants someone who can have tough conversations and hold themselves and others accountable.
“I’ve been in that position many times as a military leader, and it is a really hard thing to do, but we need somebody who is willing to take these hard leadership roles and do the right thing for the children, even if it is an uncomfortable thing,” she said.
Cavazos said she has only spoken to Dominguez about the district’s attendance and zoning advisory committee, which the latter sits on, and the conversations have always been polite and respectful.
Her interactions with Biassotti have been the opposite. She said she has reported Biassotti to district police for threats she allegedly made while Cavazos was board president in 2021. Biassotti has been ejected from school board meetings over the years because of incendiary outbursts; one time, she called out to Cavazos by name with a profanity as she reached the door.
Still, Cavazos will try to build on what the two may have in common, in the best interests of constituents.
Biassotti did not respond to requests for an interview. In a conversation with the Sun in July, she said that when she became active in CCSD affairs during the pandemic, she was “furious” about how her daughter had been negatively affected by closures.
“I know that being on the school board means that I will be on a table with different opinions and views, and that we do have to maintain a moderate and civilized tone, because we do have a common denominator, which is concern for kids,” she said.
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