Well, last month, you met Trustee Irene Bustamante Adams, one of two new School Board Trustees for the Clark County School District.

Now meet District D Trustee Brenda Zamora.

Eldorado High School Student Luke helped us with this interview.

Take it away, Luke.

-Hello, Trustee Zamora.

Thank you for talking with us.

Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself and your dream becoming a trustee?

(Brenda Zamora) Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

It's been a long journey.

It's been a very interesting journey, and that's actually a really big question for me.

I am a mother.

I have an IEP student who is in 4th grade right now.

And I have done a lot of work in my community.

And I've done a lot of education in my community.

And for so many years, I actually spent a lot of time educating my community on the importance of getting involved and getting politically involved.

And I actually spent a few years doing education on local elections, right, and how important our local elections really matter, because they affect our day-to-day life.

So then I got involved in, you know, what was happening in the district as a whole because of the pandemic.

The pandemic was really hard on my family.

My daughter is visually impaired.

So she has issues, you know, just staying on track, doing work through a Chromebook.

And it was very difficult.

And through my day-to-day job, we actually did a lot of phone calls, talking to community members and asking if they were okay, what do they need.

And there was just a big gap between the community and the district on how they can, you know, get through this pandemic.

And even though there was no plans, I completely understood that, but there was miscommunication most of the times, too.

So I started getting involved, trying to bring those voices to the school board.

And I would show up, do public comment, I would share a story about, you know, a community member who was struggling with the WiFi buses, and just to bring different perspectives to our members at that time.

And the opportunity came up that there was going to be a seat, and I decided to just try it out.

And I took a leap of faith, and I did it.

And we're here now, and it's been an adventure for sure.

-That's amazing.

Thank you.

What would you say are the three biggest issues in CCSD and that you hope to tackle during your time in office?

-ooh.

One of the big ones is communication.

I do a lot of communications work in my day-to-day, and I always talk about needing to meet people where they are.

And my community, which is District D, which is majority of the east side, are very heavy Spanish speaking community.

So I am trying to push and making sure and amplifying when we do that we do have resources in Spanish.

If our community needs some help and needs support, the district does provide that, and just building that bridge between, you know, our community and the district.

The second thing that I want to focus on is figuring out how we retain our teachers and how we can keep them.

The teachers are so crucial to our life.

I wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up.

I went to Nevada State, everything.

But a big thing that I noticed was just the pay.

It wasn't worth it at that time, and that was years ago and we're still in that same cycle.

We're not paying our teachers enough.

So how can we work together and figure out and pass policies that will benefit our teachers to stay?

Our third, my third issue, ooh, that's a big one.

I would say probably resources.

I think we need to be building community partnerships with people who are out there already doing the work, how we can just become also like a resource hub.

I would love to see that, where we can just guide people.

I'm a true believer that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

People are already out there doing the work.

So it's just how do we also maneuver and funnel all that information to our community?

-Thank you.

Having two parents working, CCCS teachers, that means a lot to me, too, seeing you want to combat those issues.

What would you say is the role of a trustee in improving morale and atmosphere within their district?

-What we need to do and need to focus on is working together, really coming to the table and focusing on the issues and having those conversations, those real conversations that we have.

-Thank you.

And lastly, what can staff and students in District D do to help you achieve your goals?

How can we help partner with you?

-Reach out to me.

I-- This has been, you know, fun few months where I'm meeting new people, meeting new teachers.

There's so many great things happening in the district that sometimes I don't, I don't see on a daily basis.

But I appreciate when teachers reach out.

They send me fliers for events happening or they send me updates of what they're doing in their school.

I really appreciate when admin includes us in those, you know, invitations.

Yes, reach out.

Call me.

-Thank you.

And back to you guys.

-Thank you, Luke and Trustees Zamora.

You can learn more about all the members of the CCSD Board of Trustees on ccsd.net.