The Clark County School District is the 6th largest school district in the nation and consists of about 180 school psychologists. It serves the city of Las Vegas and surrounding areas, providing opportunities for school psychologists to choose their preference of working in an urban, suburban, or rural school setting. |
The Clark County School District started an RTI pilot study in 2003, and completely abandoned the IQ/Achievement Discrepancy model by 2009, using only the RTI model. As RTI expanded over the years, image 1 shows how more general education students are reportedly receiving interventions, image 2 shows how more students are being exited from tier 2 interventions because they were back on grade level, image 3 shows how less students are being referred for an evaluation by percentage of total cases, and image 4 suggests that students that are being referred have more accurate referrals, meaning the students referred are more likely to be determined eligible for special education (i.e., approaching 80% of all reported evaluations).
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For more information, listen to Bob Weires, Director for Psychological Services, talk about the process of implementing RTI on the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Podcasts. Click Here to Listen.
The PBIS Pilot study, which has been implemented throughout the district by mostly school psychologists and school psychologist supervisors, is rapidly expanding. There are currently, as of the 2017-2018 school year, 70 different schools in the district who are implementing school-wide PBIS. The district PBIS team is guided by the state of Nevada, who has provided grant money to the schools implementing PBIS. Any school psychologist in the district has the option to volunteer on the district PBIS team. The role consists of mentoring different schools through the process of SWPBIS implementation.
Coordinators of Clark County
Bob Weires - Director for Psychological Services Bob has been an employee of the Clark County School District for 25 years. After earning his ED.S. in School Psychology, his entry level position was in the Clark County School District. After 4 years as a school psychologist, he spent 6 years working for the Office of Compliance and Monitoring. Afterwards, he took a position as a liaison to Clark County School Districts alternative education programs. Subsequent to this, he was identified as Director for Psychological Services. He is in his 12th year as Director. Listen to Bob's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |
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Dr. Keri Altig - Area 3 South Keri received her ED.S. in School Psychology and then went on to get her doctorate in Early Childhood Special Education. She is a supervisor for the southern areas of the county. Keri is in charge of job recruitment. She also has a strong expertise in autism. Specifically, she has coordinated activities and professional development for autism consultants in Clark County. Listen to Keri's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |  |
Janel Houck - Area 1 East Janel has been a school psychologist for 18 years in the Clark County School District. She is Clark County's newest supervisor and was promoted on 10/5/2015. She is passionate about RTI and has been a trainer for most of her career. More recently, she played an integral role on the PBIS team, assisting and training pilot schools in behavior management. Janel was not yet a supervisor when the NASP Podcasts were conducted. |
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Kathy Konold - Area 1 West Kathy has been a supervisor for approximately 5 years after 18 years of being a school psychologist. She originally started in Illinois and has been in Clark County since 1996. She has a strong expertise in PBIS and oversees the trainings and initiatives from the department regarding PBIS. She has assisted in organizing trainings for CHAMPs (Classwide PBIS) as well as Foundations (Schoolwide PBIS) in Clark County pilot schools. Listen to Kathy's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |  |
Pete Reynolds - Area 2 South Pete has been working now for about 30 years. Most of those years, he worked as a school psychologist. He has also worked for the Nevada Department of Education for several years. He has his ED.S. in School Psychology from the University of Idaho. Pete is currently on the NVASP Legislative Committee. Previously, he was a President of NVASP. Listen to Pete's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |
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Melody Thompson - Area 3 West Melody earned her master's degree in Clinical Psychology and an ED.S. in School Psychology. She has a strong expertise in RTI, Aimsweb, and data analysis. Over 10 years ago, she helped start a grassroots effort to train staff across the district in RTI. She was part of an RTI team that consisted of 30 school psychologists. Her team would go to schools once a week to train school staff on how to do RTI in the schools. This is how RTI got started in the Clark County School District. Listen to Melody's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |
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Laurie Walz - Area 2 North Laurie graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder and worked as a school psychologist in Colorado for three years in a suburban setting, in Arizona on the Navajo reservation for four years in a decidedly rural setting, and in Nevada for 20 years in a very urban setting. Laurie speaks Spanish as a second language and has extensive experience with language acquisition and its impact on student achievement. Laurie is currently beginning her second year as a supervisor of both the bilingual psychologists who provide services for all (approximately 58,000) students who are exposed to more than one language in the home in Clark County, as well as a group of 30 psychologists that work tirelessly to meet the needs of students in the heart of Las Vegas. Listen to Laurie's NASP Podcast interview by clicking here. |
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Please contact Dr. Keri Altig for information on jobs or paid internships at altigkl@nv.ccsd.net
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Benefits of Working in Clark County |
-All new school psychologists receive scheduled trainings with Admin before the school year starts -All new school psychologists are provided with a first year mentor -All school psychologists are evaluated by school psychology supervisors instead of principals -The large number of school psychologists in the district makes it easy to collaborate/network -Special assignments allow for school psychologists to work in their area of interest such as PBIS -Great experience to work in a well-developed RTI/PBIS district -Opportunities to work at the elementary, middle, or high school level -Opportunities to work in an urban, suburban, or rural setting -Paid internships -The cost of living is very cheap compared to most cities (No state tax) -CCSD provides the option to match salaries from a school psychologist's prior district. Conditions apply, so contact CCSD's Human Resource division for more information about matching salary. For more information about jobs, contact Dr. Keri Altig at altigkl@nv.ccsd.net |
