Carson City School District Board of Trustees Meeting - May 12, 2026
Carson City School District Board of Trustees Meeting - May 12, 2026
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees met on May 12, 2026, to discuss and act on various agenda items, including recognitions of student achievements, a presentation on city growth and its impact on schools, updates on library services, budget, and policy changes. The meeting featured student recognitions from athletics, HOSA, speech and debate, and theater, as well as public comment on parent engagement.
Consent Calendar
- Adoption of the Agenda: Motion by Trustee Ramirez, second by Trustee Roberts. Passed unanimously.
- Approval of Consent Agenda: Motion by Trustee Peterson, second by Trustee Varner. Passed unanimously.
Recognitions & Reports
- Superintendent's Report: Southwest Gas Foundation donated $5,000 to the Carson City Schools Foundation for STEM microgrants. The foundation has a budget of $60,000–$65,000 per year, allocating about $20,000 for AP exams, $20,000 for mini grants, and $10,000 for books for Jump Start.
- Student Athlete Signings: 8 student athletes were recognized for signing to play collegiate sports; 7 of 8 earned scholarship money. They are pursuing diverse majors and sports at schools in California, Oregon, Iowa, Vermont, North Dakota, and New York.
- HOSA Future Health Professionals: 35 students competed at the state competition in Las Vegas. The results included 20 top ten finishers, 12 certificates of excellence, 17 students qualifying for nationals, and the chapter winning the 100% membership gold award.
- Speech and Debate: 9 students qualified for the national tournament in Richmond, Virginia (June 13–19). Events included duo interpretation, impromptu, extemporaneous debate, congressional debate, and public forum debate. The duo team (Caden and Chelsea) won the state championship and had 12 consecutive first-place wins.
- Theater Awards: Micah Duran (Carson High sophomore) won Outstanding Lead Actor at the Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards—the first from Northern Nevada and the youngest winner. Devin Kellner won the Spirit of Broadway award.
- Additional Reports: Carson High Student Council hosted a state conference with 1,400 attendees. Boys volleyball team defeated Reed. Various school-level reports highlighted field trips, STEM nights, swim lessons (third-grade partnership with Parks and Rec), and upcoming events.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Griffin Winward (WNC student) presented a project focused on increasing parent engagement through monthly after-school community events at elementary schools. He requested permission to start small at one school. The board directed him to contact Superintendent Fueling.
Discussion Items
- Growth and Development Presentation (Hope Sullivan, Carson City Planning Director): Presented an overview of the city's Master Plan (updated May 2025), growth management ordinance, and current development. Key points: Carson City is compact with a focus on infill development; average household size decreased from 2010 to 2020; 774 housing starts are permitted for 2026. Superintendent Fueling confirmed that continued growth will not compromise school capacity. Discussed projects including Altair Apartments (207 units), Blackstone Ranch (204 lots), and Lampa Ranch West. Trustee questions addressed population cap (80,000), workforce housing, and short-term rentals (40-50 currently). The board requested formalized communication between planning and district staff.
- Library Update (Ananda Campbell): Reported on the alignment of library services with the district's strategic plan. Highlights include: integration of employability skills (work ethic, self-representation, teamwork, etc.), professional development courses for librarians (6 courses, 4-5 new librarians started this year), collection analysis, and the use of a Gemini AI tool to recommend books. Library checkouts at Carson High School increased by over 1,000. Middle school libraries doubled circulation. The district allocated funds for 108 new titles per elementary school.
- Policy 505 – Assignment Within the District (Second Reading): Approved unanimously. The policy now defines the open enrollment window as typically January to early spring.
- Budget Update for FY 2026-2027: Superintendent Fueling reported a projected deficit of approximately $2.9 million (down from ~$3 million at the prior meeting). 50 positions were removed, 14 staff received reduction-in-force notifications. The district is planning for continued budget challenges due to declining enrollment and is reviewing contracts (special education, Jump Start). The board emphasized the need for balanced reductions across all staff categories in future budgets.
- Superintendent's Goals for 2026: Approved with an amendment. Goal 1 was changed from "fine-tuning" to "continued district-wide improvement of multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to align instructional, mental health, and behavioral resources." The board also directed Superintendent Fueling to bring back measurable metrics for all goals at a future meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Policy 505 approved unanimously.
- Superintendent's Goals approved with amendment and condition to present measurable metrics.
- Consent Agenda approved unanimously.
- NASB Award Nominations: The board agreed to have Superintendent Fueling conduct a staff survey and bring nominations back for a vote. A subcommittee may be formed by the board president.
- Parent Engagement Proposal: Griffin Winward directed to work with Superintendent Fueling.
- Future Agenda Items: Trustee Varner requested an update on the Edge Staff contract.
Meeting Transcript
May 12th. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. First item on the agenda is adoption of the agenda. And this is for possible action. Do I have a motion? So moved by Trustee Ramirez. Second, second. And that was seconded by Trustee Roberts. Okay. And do we have public comment? Seeing none. All in favor, please say aye. Motion passes unanimously moving on to the agenda item number two. This is a flag salute. We'll be um started with Trustee Ramirez. Great, thank you. Move on to agenda item number three, which is our superintendent's report. This is for information only. Thank you, President Wall. Good evening, trustees and guests. Tonight to start things off, we have a um an old friend of the school district who once again is being very generous to us and here specifically to our foundation. So if I could have uh Carson City Schools Foundation representatives uh coming up, and Stacey Woodbury, if you could come on over. And uh, we got a big old check there. Are there enough zeros on there? Uh good evening. My name is Stacey Woodbury. I'm with Southwest Gas Corporation. And uh this is our 60th year of the Southwest Gas Foundation, and we're really happy uh to be here tonight to um to partner again with the school district and the schools foundation and make a presentation for five thousand dollars to the school's foundation to be used for uh STEM microgrants in the classroom. Not everybody back there ready for the first one, and thank you for letting me come tonight. Well, thank you. You can always come. If you something like that, hey, you're more than welcome. More than welcome. Um, and again, though, I would like to thank the foundation for the work that they do for our schools as well. Hi, my name is John Hager. I'm the president of the Carson City Schools Foundation. Uh, we have a budget of about $60, $65,000 a year that we give to teachers to students to various um programs, so uh about $20,000 for AP exams, uh $20,000 for mini grants for student for teachers and departments, um, another about 10,000 for uh books for jump start and a number of other causes. So if you are interested in giving to the foundation, happy to take your money. Um, if you are interested in finding a way to help support us, you are welcome to be on our board. Just uh ask one of these guys here and they'll they'll put us in touch. We would love to have additional help. And we are working on uh an additional fundraiser this year to hopefully raise some more money and be able to increase those um expenditures for the for the kids and for the teachers. So thank you very much to uh Stacy Woodbury and Southwest Gas for the generous donation. We really appreciate it, and thank you for all the support from the school board. Okay, moving on um this evening. So last year uh the school board for the first time um uh we do lots of recognitions for students in various ways. Um but what one of the uh real highlights for what happens during the school year had had never really been recognized here before the board. So we have a number of student athletes that have um played their way and learned their way, because you can't do this with straight F's onto greater pastors at the collegiate level to be participating in sports. So if I could have any of you who are such athlete, uh come on up here. Yeah, Mr.
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