Commission on Educational Excellence named

Gov. Kenny Guinn has announced nine appointments to the commission which will hand out $100 million in education funding to public schools over the next two years.

The Commission on Educational Excellence was created by Guinn to award the grant money because, he said, the existing Board of Education and other groups were too slow getting the money out the door to school districts. He said some grants don't arrive until more than halfway through the school year.

But the appointments didn't make the Aug. 15 deadline for the new commission to send out grants because the members weren't named until Friday.

Of the $100 million, $22 million will be dedicated to all-day kindergarten.

Superintendent of Education Keith Rheault was named an ex-officio member of the panel.

The other commissioners are: elementary school teachers Max Brown and Adriano Ocampo of Las Vegas; Reno elementary school principal Pete Hall; Bernice Servilican, a Reno high school teacher; Desert Pines High School principal Robert Jacks of Las Vegas; George Ann Rice, Clark County associate superintendent; Caroline McIntosh, assistant superintendent in White Pine School District; and Chanda Cook, a parent from Las Vegas.