Turning Point Action manager, CCSD facility director challenge incumbent in Clark school board race 

Clark County School Board District F incumbent Irene Busamante Adams is running for a second term against challengers Robert Hutchinson and Laurence Neely.

The Clark County School District Board of Trustees is a nonpartisan 11-member board responsible for governing the nation’s fifth-largest school district with over 300,000 students. Seven of those members are elected and work alongside four appointed, nonvoting members.

Their primary duties are hiring and monitoring the superintendent, establishing district policy, approving the annual budget, managing capital programs, and setting strategic goals to improve student achievement.

In Nevada, nonpartisan races with more than two candidates can be decided outright in the June 9 primary if a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate crosses that threshold then the top two finishers will face off in November during the general election.

Irene Bustamante Adams

Bustamante Adams, a Democrat, served four terms in the Nevada State Assembly before she was elected to represent District F on the Clark County School Board in 2022. 

In 2025, the Clark County School Board elected her as the board president. This year, she was also elected to serve as the President of the Nevada Association of School Boards, which includes all 17 counties in Nevada.

She is currently deputy director and chief strategy officer at Workforce Connections, which is Southern Nevada’s Local Workforce Development Board.

Bustamante Adams received a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from California State University, Fresno. She also earned an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree from UNLV.

In the first quarter, Bustamante Adams did not raise any campaign contributions and did not report any expenses. She has more than $9,600 cash on hand from previous fundraising.

As the incumbent, Bustamante Adams highlighted key accomplishments from her first term on the Clark County School Board, including hiring Superintendent Jhone Ebert.

In late 2021, the Clark County School Board in Nevada fired the previous Superintendent Jesus Jara, only to rehire him weeks later following a reversal by a trustee. After a period of intense conflict with the board, Jara left the position in February 2024.

“Leading the process with the search company and coming up with a unanimous decision from the entire group to hire the superintendent was not an easy feat, and that just demonstrates my leadership capability,” Bustamante Adams said.

Once a new superintendent was hired, Bustamante Adams said the board was able to move more effectively, including approving a new two-year contract with the Clark County Education Association and the Education Support Employees Association that provided a 10% pay increase.

“We got that done the week before school started, which I had heard had never been done before, and that takes being able to build bridges, that takes transparency, that takes good communication,” Bustamante Adams said. 

Bustamante said she was also proud of the “balanced governance model” she implemented during her term. The model aims to balance the board’s oversight role and the superintendent’s administrative role.

If reelected, Bustamante Adams said she plans to prioritize revamping the district’s governance policies, developing a strategic plan to boost student outcomes, and improving budget efficiency. 

Bustamante Adams said the board plans to produce an operational efficiency report—covering areas such as purchasing, transportation, and food service—by June, outlining where the district can improve its use of taxpayer dollars.  

Part of the strategic plan will focus on pre-K literacy and early intervention, career readiness, and dual credit programs, said Bustamante Adams. 

“Nationally, 70% of the students go directly into the workforce, but there’s not a career plan for each one, and so we need to work together as a team to develop that process,” Bustemante Adams said, adding that she wants to focus on aligning student education with regional industry needs to create a workforce pipeline.

Bustamante Adams argued she is the most qualified to address the school district’s most pressing challenges, including funding, low per-pupil spending, and declining enrollment. 

“Being a former state legislator and being the former chair of taxation (legislative committee), I know we leave a lot of money off the table and need to modernize our tax policy,” Bustemante Adams said. “For example, right now we may not collect taxes on digital goods. Electric vehicles are not included in some taxes when it comes to transportation.”

Robert Hutchinson

If elected, Hutchinson said his top priorities would be safety, student success, and educator empowerment.

Hutchinson is a first-time candidate and currently serves as director of facilities for the Clark County School District, a position he has held for more than three years. In 2024, Hutchinson was awarded administrator of the year. 

Hutchinson is retiring at the end of this fall after a full career with the school district, where he started as a temporary custodian.

In the first quarter, Hutchinson raised more than $1,600 in campaign contributions. He spent nearly $600 and has about $1,200 cash on hand. His campaign is largely self funded, as he has contributed about $1,000 to his own campaign. Hutchinson is registered as nonpartisan, but said he aligns more with Democrats.  

Not every student wants to enter higher education, said Hutchinson, adding that Nevada falls behind when it comes to creating a pipeline for students who want to enter the workforce. 

“I care about other pathways for students, because it’s a personal story for me. I started at the very bottom as a temporary custodian. I wanted to help with kids now that may be lost,” Hutchinson said. 

Hutchinson said he does not believe Bustante Adams has prioritized workforce development as promised when she was first elected. If elected, he said he would work to expand a student worker program he created.

“I was able to create the student worker program on my own, without her support through the Workforce Connection group that she’s affiliated with. So that was great, but I need to expand that,” Hutchinson said. 

Declining enrollment in the Clark County School District could be mitigated by focusing on successful programs like the district’s career and technical education, said Hutchinson.

After decades working in the school district, Hutchinson said he has plenty of real operational experience from inside the district that can inform his decisions on the school board. 

“I can see where systems break down in practice, and I’m focusing on fixing what’s not working and stabilizing what is and making sure that the decisions that we are doing lead to the real results,” Hutchinson said. “That’s another thing that kind of sets me apart from the incumbent and anyone else on the board for that matter. I’ve actually worked in the school systems, and not a single one of them have.”

Hutchinson said if elected, he would also prioritize expanding the Safe Routes to School program, and advocate for more funding and measurable timelines. 

He said he would advocate for stronger partnerships between the Clark County School District and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada to prioritize school-zone safety projects, including protected bike lanes, flashing beacons, and traffic monitoring near schools. 

Laurence Neely

Neely is currently the Spring Valley Territory Manager of Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group and sister organization of the right-wing Turning Point USA organization. He works on voter registration and training people on how to gather and submit absentee or mail-in ballots for the group. He also works as a consultant for the automotive industry.

Neely is a registered Republican and said he was motivated to run for the school board position after seeing a lack of conservative candidates in the running. 

If elected, Neely said he would advocate for a school curriculum that focuses on core literacy and math skills. Neely criticized the inclusion of cultural topics in schools that distract from reading, writing, and arithmetic.

“What’s been going on inside the classrooms is definitely not from a conservative viewpoint. I think the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic are key. I think our school district has gotten away from a lot of that over the years,” Neely said. 

In the first quarter, Neely did not raise any campaign contributions and did not report any expenses. Neely said his campaign website is launching soon, and will include more of his priorities and policy plans.  

Recent student walkouts in protest of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have concerned Neely, who said he fears schools are getting away from core learning.

“I think it’s gone a little too far, pushing certain cultural issues in the classroom, which I don’t agree with. I think the classroom is a place where kids can be safe and also learn the basics. We have kids that are graduating out of grade schools and junior highs with a very low reading level,” Neely said. 

If elected, Neely said he would advocate for increased parental control over curriculum and support for private school vouchers to expand educational options. 

Neely said he supports programs like the Nevada Educational Choice Scholarship Program, which provides need-based grants for K-12 students from low-income households to attend private schools, and is funded by granting tax credits to taxpayers in certain Nevada industries.

“I think we need to have many more options for parents of how their kids and where their kids are being educated,” Neely said. 

Neely said he believes low enrollment in the Clark County school district has been driven by curriculum shifts away from classical education, prompting parents to homeschool their children.

“What they’ve been teaching basically has gotten away from the classical education and I think parents are fed up with that, and therefore you’re seeing a pull out of parents that have decided that things are going to start homeschooling,” Neely said. 

He advocated for an open‑door policy for parents who want to join classrooms, which he said could help improve student success by increasing parent engagement. 

Neely also advocated for shorter school days that focus on core education and more recess and lunch time for students in order to foster creativity and better learning outcomes. 

“Homeschoolers can get a full day’s education done in three to four hours easily and have a better rate of learning than what’s going on in our public schools,” Neely said.