The Wheel for December 20, 2018

by Dec 20, 2018The Wheel0 comments

Dr. Jesús Jara – Clark County School District

The Wheel


Dr. Jesús Jara – Clark County School District

Dr. Jesus Jara has a lifelong passion for creating better opportunities for all children through education. That passion has roots in his own childhood, having moved from Venezuela to Miami. As an English Language Learner, Dr. Jara faced many obstacles and challenges as he acclimated to the United States; however, his students. They were a critical factor in his success. The Board of School Trustees of the Clark County School District (CCSD) appointed Dr. Jara as superintendent effective June, 2018. Dr. Jara immediately started meeting with employees, families and community leaders to explore the needs of a 358 school district with over 320,000 students. Dr. Jara has pledged to accelerate the work at CCSD – such as growth in the graduation rate, Advanced Placement (AP) participation, and the expansion of Magnet programs – with a focus on student achievement. After a period of academic and operational review and extensive engagement with internal and external stakeholders, Dr. Jara will work with the Board of School Trustees on a revised strategic plan with more specific goals to accelerate student success. Dr. Jara has been serving public school students for over 20 years. He previously served as the deputy superintendent for Orange County Public Schools in Florida for six years. As deputy superintendent, he functioned as the superintendent’s designee. He oversaw five area superintendents and the division of Teaching and Learning, including all programs from early childhood to adult education. With his assistance, Orlando’s achievement gap narrowed faster than 90 percent of major cities across the United States, according to Education Quality Index.

Message From The President

Dear Rotarians,

As Americans, every year at this time we hear the King James version of the Bible Luke 2:14 in a Charlie Brown Christmas. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men.” At this time of year we sing about goodwill in Christmas carols and send each other cards filled with hope and joy for the coming year. Regardless of our religion, during the holiday season we pray for an end to wars, an end to bitterness and hostility, and an end to fear. At this time of year we go to parties and talk about how nice it would be to have Christmas all year long, so people could think about peace and goodwill to all mankind. As Rotarians, we think about how we can foster peace and goodwill to mankind throughout the year, and then we do something about it.

Two weeks ago, we heard from Florence Maher our second Rotary Peace Scholar. We sent her to attend the International Christian University Rotary Peace Center in Japan which is one of Rotary International’s six Peace Centers. Rotary’s Peace Centers train and develop leaders who work towards peace by helping to train others in conflict prevention and resolution. “The ICU Rotary Peace Center commits itself to this mission in line with Rotary International’s long established tradition of peace and conflict resolution and peace-building through its well-known global projects addressing concrete problems of human suffering and deprivation.” In the last decade, the Rotary Peace Centers trained over 1,000 people for careers in peace building. Our Club has actively supported this mission.

By promoting peace on earth and goodwill towards mankind, we celebrate the spirit of Christmas all year long. Have a great and safe end to the holiday season. I hope your 2019 is filled with peace, goodwill and success. I look forward to seeing you again in January.

Jim Kohl
95th President
Rotary Club of Las Vegas

 

Member Highlights

Scribe – December 13, 2018

Las Vegas Rotary Club Meeting: December 13, 2018

President Jim Kohl called the Club Assembly meeting to order. Michael Williams gave the invocation. Arlene Sirois led the club in singing My Country Tis of Thee, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The Sergeant at Arms was Jimmelle Siarot.

  • There were (0) International Rotarians, (0) visiting Rotarians and (0) Guests of Rotarians introduced;
  • President Jim encouraged members to share the live stream of our meeting on social media to share our message and our Club with others;
  • Jerry Engle shared, with condolences, that Annee Nounna’s daughter has received her ‘angel’s wings’ and conveyance of thoughts to Annee be deferred for a few days;
  • President Jim presented a check in the sum of $4,500 to Jim Mason and Cecilia of Juvenile Diabetes Research on behalf of the Las Vegas Rotary Club and Howard & Howard;
  • Four recipients of the 4th Quarter Wetzel Awards joined us for lunch, three Staff Sergeants and one Airman 1st Class, receiving their plaques and tickets for a Circle du Soleil show, with Sgt. Brown accepting the award on behalf of a fifth recipient who could not make the meeting;
  • PP Jim Hunt recapped the success of the 23rd Santa Clothes event 12/6, noting 5,307 children have been recipients of the program since inception, with over $1.2 million in goods and services provided, and the special discount being exclusively extended to LVRC by JC Penney through June 2019 by texting to 67292 LVRC and for those not able to text, printed copies of the coupons with bar code are available from PP Jim Hunt; AG/PP Michael Gordon presented a check for $3,000 to President Jim for Santa Clothes from Speedway Children’s Charity;
  • Jaime Goldsmith reported the great celebration of the Holiday Party of 12/6 with great food and DJ at Treasure Island; Marie Walsh announced BWB on 12/11 had 166 children and 86 adults in attendance and Spread The Word Nevada reported 67 reading logs were turned in representing 670 books read by the children; Toni Kern announced a new sign up sheet in the Green Book for members interested in volunteering in the new semester Books With Buddies program; Michael Williams encouraged participation in the Magical Forest 12/20;
  • The weekly drawing began at $4,164 plus this week’s donations. The Ticket Winner was Arlene Sirois, who received a prize of $10, and the Lawry’s Bucks Winner was Brian Sorrentino;
  • President Jim Kohl introduced program chairs for Membership, Community Service, International Service, International Foundation, Public Image, Special Projects, Fundraising, LVR Foundation, and Fellowship Activities each recapping the amazing work and projects by our club and its members, which now stands at 143 members, including the many community and international projects, the increase in Paul Harris Fellows, new Major Donors and Major Donor II, the varied fundraising projects from the raffle, car show, Wine2Water, Canned Food Drive and Cigar Social to a teaser by PEE Jackie Thornhill of new fundraising ideas and the verifiable, extraordinary impact of social media by viewing our live stream, 1200 following our Facebook page and increase of 86% visiting our website; and
  • President Jim then adjourned the meeting


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