Mike Walker
Carson City School Board Trustee Mike Walker keeps looking down the road and trying to get ahead of a problem in the educational system. The ability to anticipate and navigate challenges constructively has served the district well through some tough decisions since 2016.
Walker was elected to a third term in November and has set forth his goals since there is still work to be done on multiple levels.
“My number one purpose and goal, everything I do, is for the students,” Walker said. “I truly want to make sure that we have a robust education system in our community that's meeting the needs of the kids.”
In his professional role, he is Sutro Elementary School’s principal in Lyon County. Outside his school hours, he’s a multi-faceted volunteer. He’s a CCSD trustee, appointed to the Nevada State Board of Education in 2020 and Nevada Association of School Boards’ vice president and now president. He also serves on the board of directors for the nonprofit Food for Thought.
Walker called it an honor to be re-elected to the school board but observed that the state’s education structure is at a “crossroads” with its competency-based system, he said.
“It’s not just (concepts) you've gained in fifth grade, but when you've learned the concepts that are important to fifth grade, you're working on the concepts that are important to the sixth or seventh grade,” he said. “And so that's going to change what education looks like. I don't know how fast that change is going to happen, but we're going to have to start being in front of that and making sure that we have systems in place that are ready to go when these changes are made at the state level.”
Before running for the Carson City School Board eight years ago, Walker looked hard at the curriculum and thought the district’s offerings were too scripted without opportunities for student engagement. He shared the opinions of colleagues and families that the chosen material didn’t inspire real learning for children.
“It was taking the fun out of teaching and making it hard for kids to love to read, and, you know, I wanted to change that,” he said.
His involvement in his first term with a committee that wrote the district’s Race to the Top grant, a program offering schools federal funding up to $400 million to close achievement gaps and support student success in college and careers, was a great opportunity to help early on, he said. The district was one of 16 winners in 2012 and received $10 million, but a catch came with the cash.
“Part of that grant that we received involved taking our best and brightest teachers from the classroom and putting them in coaching and district level positions working on curriculum, and there weren’t individuals to fill those positions,” he said.
Walker has spent two terms as a proponent of helping substitutes who often served on a long-term basis. He’s advocated for attracting new talent who are eager to learn and willing to meet students where they are in their education.
“I value the work of our substitute teachers, and some of our substitute teachers are retired teachers, but a lot of them are pre-service teachers who are just getting into the swing of things, learning the trade,” he said.
He’s also recognized the diverse and often difficult needs and decisions being made in Carson schools or at the higher state level.
“When you're in a position of a governing body that is responsible for oversight, you kind of have a view of a lot of things and you see things coming,” Walker said. “And so I think that one thing we're going to have to be prepared for is we have a projected downturn in enrollment, and it doesn’t surprise anybody who lives in Carson City. It’s expensive to live in Carson City.”
Since Superintendent Andrew Feuling took the district’s top job in 2022 and even in his role as chief financial officer, he frequently has presented projections that Carson City’s student population gradually would slow over time. The decline has come either as fewer families move into the area or have fewer children. Both scenarios could impact the district’s funding. Walker said the long-term outcome concerns him. Discussions last year dealt with recognitions to foster industrial involvement in education or creating internships, but Walker said he would like to see expansion in these areas.
“I would love to see greater partnerships with the industries and the community and involvement with the families,” Walker said. “We need to hear the perspectives of the families. This is their education system. You know, we’re their representatives, but it’s their system.”