Walt enters trustee’s seat as teacher willing to learn

Twenty-six-year Carson City resident Molly Walt wants to market the community to educators as a great place to help students and work for the voter. After teaching in the Carson City School District for 15 years and using her nonprofit experience, she’s ready for the learning curve to help on the school board for both.

Walt, chief executive officer for the Nevada Rural Counties Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), began her term on the CCSD Board of Trustees’ in January. She represents District 6 and said she looks forward to asking questions about the processes at the board and school levels. She also hopes she’ll be approached by others when they have their own inquiries or thoughts.

“I have an educational background,” she said. “And in being on the school board, the timing never seemed to be right with government. It’s an 8-to-5 job and I need to be flexible where I could do school visits and whatnot. Also, just because of where we are with education right now, I believe with teacher retention and recruitment — and student attendance is so extremely important — I just felt with the experience and being in the community, I just felt at this time … I think that being involved and that diversified involvement, I would hope parents and students would feel comfortable coming to me.”

At RSVP, Walt manages the overall strategic, fiscal, operational, government and community relations of the organization. She previously served as executive director for the Nevada Commission for Women and directed the implementation of the statewide celebrations of the 100th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote. She also served as a Carson City supervisor from 2009 to 2012.

Walt is a mother of four who at one point all attended Carson City public schools. Her older twins have graduated, but her daughter Gracie, now a senior, is preparing to graduate from Carson High School and looks forward to attending the University of Idaho while her youngest, Kael, a sophomore, continues as a Senator and plays soccer. Walt said her children sacrificed time to work hard in school as the shelter-in-place mandates came down at the beginning of the pandemic early in 2020.

Now she wants to help Carson City’s schools by focusing on its policies as a trustee. She said it would take some time to learn the school board’s process and would start by exploring staff members’ key concerns, especially among those who are leaving their positions or considering other opportunities. She also hopes to address the bus driver shortage and to shorten CCSD’s walk radius, extended last August from 2 miles to 2.5 miles for middle and high school students for the 2022-23 school year.

“Obviously, if teachers are leaving and going to another job or exploring another career and going to another district, I would like to know why,” she said. “I’d ask, ‘What spurs you to leave the district or even the teaching career?’ Again, it’s going to take a team. Employee health overall is so important.”

Walt said she encourages anyone to speak up or reach out about school district issues.

“I’m in a place where I can listen and bring those concerns to the superintendent and to the school board, whether those concerns are positive or negative, and celebrate the good the schools are doing and at the same time ask if changes do need to be made and if we hope to recruit and retain good teachers,” she said. “I hope I sell our community.”