Carson City Schools Superintendent Richard Stokes receives superior rating

Carson City Schools Superintendent Richard Stokes received an overall superior rating at the school board meeting Tuesday night.

The seven-member board rated Stokes on his performance for the 2015 calendar year in areas such as leadership and district culture, policy governance, organizational management, leadership development, educational programming and curriculum development, staff relationships, values and ethics, financial matters, community relations and the empower Carson City project. Each member rated Stokes on a scale from needs improvement to superior in each of the categories. Stokes never received lower than a satisfactory rating on any category.

Each category was rated from a scale of 1 to 4. Stokes received a total score of 34.55, which would have left him at very satisfactory and just below the score of 35 needed to give him a superior rating. The board decided to round up to 35 to give Stokes the superior rating he received.

Most of the board members agreed Stokes was doing an exceptional job managing the school district, though some complaints came from the lack of timing for notifications to parents about students’ physicals and Stokes’ handling of other school district incidents.

“I think that we are always doing great things, but there is a little bit of room for growth,” said Joe Cacioppo, vice president for the school board.

One board member, Ryan Green, said he believed Stokes needed to improve district culture.

“If we had a real culture of learning and a reputation of learning, we would have students and educators beating down our doors (to be apart of our district),” Green said.

Stokes received a rating from all the board members in each category and only Green in just one category, community relations, came close to giving Stokes a needs improvement rating, but rounded up his 1.8 score to 2.0 to give Stokes a satisfactory rating.

However, a majority of the school board members agreed Stokes is the best man for the position, even saying he’s the “high point of the district.”

“I think we are very fortunate to have Richard in charge of our education (in Carson City),” said Ron Swirczek, school board president.

Stokes ranked highest for his values and ethics, financial matters, and educational programs in the district.

The superintendent told the board he appreciates the feedback, and he hopes anyone would be open to giving him feedback at any time during the year. He told the board members he appreciated their support of his work.

“I just want you all to know how fortunate I feel to be here in Carson City,” Stokes said. “I enjoy coming to work and rubbing shoulders with the people in this community. We have great students and we see everyday that our hard work is validated.”