News Briefs, July 11

Court stays district’s order to eliminate school deans

A District Court judge in Las Vegas has temporarily halted the Clark County School District from eliminating 170 dean positions for this upcoming school year.

On Wednesday, July 7, Judge Nancy Allf issued a temporary restraining order in response to a complaint filed last month by the administrators union alleging that the school board violated Nevada’s open meeting law by voting behind closed doors to eliminate the deans positions to help close a $17 million deficit.

An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Aug. 14, two days after the 2019-2020 school year begins.

Boulder City High School is one of the schools that would lose its dean position.

The temporary restraining order will give both sides time to present their cases to the court ahead of a ruling on the merits of the union’s complaint and the possible issuance of an injunction.

The decision also freezes efforts to reassign deans to schools as teachers, which were already underway.

The district said in a statement that it will comply with the temporary order pending a hearing.

City’s request for new trial in crosswalk case continues

Nevada’s Supreme Court is one step closer in making a decision about whether to grant the city a new trial in a case for which it was found guilty of vindictive prosecution against a former resident.

On June 19, the city petitioned the court for a writ of mandamus or certiorari to have an order by District Judge Richard Scotti vacated and a new trial granted. The case stems from the June 8, 2016, arrest of former resident John Hunt while he was protesting a police-sanctioned crosswalk enforcement event. On July 3, the court ordered Hunt’s attorney Stephen Stubbs to file his answer about why the city’s request should not be granted.

Stubbs has 28 days to file his answer, and the city then has 14 days to file a response.

For this proceeding, the city retained Marquis Aurbach Coffing at the rate of $200 per hour.