In the office of Clark County School District Superintendent Jhone Ebert is a Golden Apple award for her six years as Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“For six years as Nevada’s unstoppable ‘Energizer Bunny’ empowering students, teachers and schools with boundless energy, enthusiasm and pure dedication,” it reads.

After proving her effectiveness in the state’s highest administrative position in education, Ebert was selected to become CCSD’s superintendent in a unanimous vote by the school board in March. Coming up on her first 100 days as the district superintendent and the beginning of her first full school year, her hallmark energy is undiminished.

“There are days that I wake up before my alarm and I’m like, let’s go! What’s on the agenda?” she says.

Ebert is a breath of fresh air for the fifth largest school district in the nation, which had been without a permanent superintendent since the resignation of the embattled former superintendent Jesus Jara in February 2024, whose tenure was marked by conflict with the school board, employee unions and lawmakers.

Ebert, who was a math teacher and administrator in CCSD for 25 years before she was appointed to state superintendent, has inherited a district overseen by interim superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell. She is building on successes as well as challenges.

The Weekly sat down with Ebert to talk about those challenges, what she brings to the table, and her goals and vision for the more than 300,000 students and more than 40,000 staff who make up the school district.

Your rise to superintendent marks a couple of firsts for CCSD—you’re the first Asian-American person to be in the position, and the first woman. How does your background translate to your leadership?

Being the first female in 2025—when you think about that, how does that happen? And how do we make sure that it’s not another 50 years before there’s another female? Head on, you go into these rooms, and there are mainly men in them. And there are difficult days. There are times when they’re looking at me like, ‘Oh, isn’t she sweet.’ But it’s not about being sweet, it’s [about] the intellectual capital that all women bring to the table. There are days that I think about it. But it doesn’t keep me from acting any differently on behalf of children.

In my upbringing, I saw the educators. [They] did not look at me as a free and reduced lunch kid. They looked at me as a child that had so much potential. They said I could go to college even though we financially couldn’t afford it. We took advantage of the federal Pell Grants ... and now it comes full circle.

You’re picking up where former superintendent Jara and interim superintendent Larsen-Mitchell left off. What successes and challenges have you inherited?

The implementation of common materials across our school district [is one success]. Because we have children that move across our school district, we need to be consistent. 30% of our children are transient. And so, we need to foolproof ourselves and make sure there’s consistency in learning. The prior administration made sure there were common materials in language arts, mathematics and so forth.

On the side of improvement, communication. When I was doing my research for this position, a lot of parents were seeing little to no communication from the school district. To the point of meeting children where they’re at, how do we meet our community where it’s at? We’ve been building back the relationships.

What is your approach to building those relationships?

Building back trust takes an open conversation. That doesn’t mean that we’re always going to agree. I think people think trust is about agreement. No, trust is [about] being accurate with the information that you have, listening to those that have a different opinion.

The [national] data does show that parents really love their schools. But when you talk about the district, they don’t so much love the district. And that’s a very interesting dynamic. So we’re working with principals [on the message] that we are all CCSD. We’re lifting up and changing that narrative that, yes, my neighborhood school is great. And the district is great also.

Especially nowadays, some parents have mistrust in the district, schools and teachers, and they want more say in how classrooms are run. How do you balance the need for parents to be heard, while also empowering teachers and administrators to make decisions and do their job?

In my former job, I was appointed by Gov. [Steve] Sisolak, a Democratic governor, and then reappointed by [Republican] Gov. Joe Lombardo. That is extremely rare, and I’m very proud of that.

Let the adults do their politics or whatever they need to do. Our job is to grow Democrats, Republicans, Independents. We want to grow critical thinkers so that when they leave our classrooms, they can analyze information and then make determination on where they would like to go in their life.

Among many other early wins, in your first 50 days of being superintendent, you established a working group of high school students to provide feedback on mental health service accessibility. How has that gone?

The advisory group met last year. They came with ideas and presented in May to the school board on mental health supports for our students. ... Their request was specifically around additional social workers in our schools. We’re fortunate that we continue to receive funding from the Legislature and from the governor with regard to providing supports for mental health.

Why is it important to you to include students in gathering feedback and decision-making processes?

Student voice is huge. We’re coming in the 22nd century ... but the adults have all the answers? That’s not true. Our children, when you ask them, and families and teachers, they have the answers. So it’s been very important for me to get out into the schools and out into the community.

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