LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Clark County School District Superintendent Jhone Ebert pulled a contract to equip buses with cameras to catch people who speed by when red light stop signs are flashing, just before trustees were scheduled to vote on the matter.
The delay leaves the issue in limbo; a district spokeswoman said Friday she had no information about what officials would do next.
WATCH | Senior Political Reporter Steve Sebelius continues to look into the possible future contract holders:
"The Clark County School District has completed the initial phases of exploring this program, including a thorough procurement process for a vendor to operate the stop-arm cameras," Ebert said in the statement.
"I am withdrawing this item from tonight’s agenda. As we have continued to evaluate the implementation models and the experiences of other jurisdictions across the country, several complex operational and administrative questions have emerged.
"I want to thank our team for conducting a fair process that prioritized CCSD’s high standards for procurement," the statement concludes.
But at least one vendor that was not selected — Bus Patrol — has contended that the school district's staff who evaluated the bids was biased in favor of the company that won in the process, Verra Mobility.
In a 29-page protest, Bus Patrol attorneys contended the district failed to check Verra's references and showed favoritism toward the company.
At least one school district trustee told Channel 13 before the meeting that there were questions about the process that needed to be answered before a bidder was awarded the contract. It wasn't clear if there were enough votes on the board of trustees to give Verra the award.
But a Verra representative said her company was still committed to placing cameras on all 2,000 buses in the district's fleet.
"So we were very disappointed that the item was removed from the agenda, because, as you know, every day that passes, we're putting our kids' lives at risk," said Melba Rivera, vice president of Verra. "And that's the premise of the program, why the program exists, is for the safety of children."
A pilot program on buses in Clark County and Carson City — ironically run by Bus Patrol — produced videos that showed violators zooming past school buses with their red lights and stop signs activated.
That video may have been the deciding factor in the Legislature approving a bill to authorize automated cameras for school buses.
In Nevada, automated cameras have been banned outright since 1999, and two other bills to allow them — one for general traffic enforcement and one in construction zones — both failed to pass in the 2025 session.
Rivera said Verra is still very much interested in the contract and is ready to proceed as soon as the district decides on a process.
"What I do believe, and I stick to this, is that they [the district] ran a very fair process, very detailed, very thorough," she said. "So I do know and understand that they are vested in this program and will do the process that take them to that success."
The district has options on how to proceed, everything from starting the process anew to re-evaluating the existing bids, to asking an outside group to evaluate proposals instead of district staff.
Once a contract is awarded, the district will have to settle another issue: jurisdiction. Although the district claimed to Channel 13 in an email that its police department has jurisdiction wherever students are traveling to and from school, the Nevada Revised Statues clearly say school police only have authority to enforce traffic laws on roads adjacent to school facilities.
In addition, Assembly Bill 527 — the law that authorized the use of cameras on buses — says the school district "shall" strike agreements with law-enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction in areas where school buses operate to review tickets before they are sent to alleged violators. That language would have been unnecessary if lawmakers believed school police had jurisdiction everywhere.
Not only that, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week that Clark County School District Police Chief Henry Blackeye had reached out to Metro Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill to ask about Metro officers reviewing tickets, a request McMahill reportedly refused.