The Nye County School District Board of Trustees held a very productive meeting last Tuesday, conducting a variety of business as it made its way through a long agenda.

A proposal to hold school board meetings in northern areas of the county to promote the inclusion of the entire county and its rural schools was approved by the board.

The board will meet in Amargosa on March 8, and a date of May 31 was set for Tonopah.

A date for meetings in Beatty, Duckwater and Gabbs will be set.

Superintendent Rob Roberts announced that he attended Gov. Jim Gibbons' State of the State address with all Nevada superintendents.

Education was one of the governor's top priorities and that he looked forward to "help(ing) as a member of the transition team to provide some information (to) the new governor in the areas of our needs," Roberts said.

One of the governor's education programs includes funding "empowerment schools."

The idea is basically giving those who work for the individual schools more control, with principals hiring their own staff and schools developing their own improvement plans.

Roberts said he plans to ensure Nye County gets its share of funding toward empowerment schools, pointing out that many facets of the program are already in place here.

The superintendent also said he met with Jim Roberts, chancellor of the Nevada university system, to encourage him to make development of a community college campus here in Pahrump a top priority.

The trustees also approved the application of retirement credit for hard-to-fill positions, such as special education teachers, which will be funded by a grant from the state.

Dale Norton, superintendent of character development, proposed some changes to the disciplinary hearing process to the board.

The hearings are conducted for students who commit major infractions and are used to determine disciplinary action.

Norton's suggestion essentially ensures that due process takes place for the accused and streamlines the entire process, with an appeal to the board being the final step in any case.

"It adds another step in the process already in place now, and it takes the board member out of the process until the very end," Norton explained. "It also saves a lot of man time for your building principals and gets them back into (school)."

The board approved Norton's ideas and will submit the new policy at a future meeting.

Supporting the arts, the trustees also approved funding of up to $155,000 for all Nye County school music programs.

The funding comes from the interest of the Educational Endowment Act.

"This is the first time that additional music funding has been considered substantially by the board of trustees since 1995," Keating said, referring to when money was allocated to Rosemary Clarke Elementary School's program. "Music as well as academics, athletics, ROTC and other programs are very important as far as giving students a sense of belonging and wanting to attend and do well in school."