School District police get raises

Friday, May 14, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

Clark Country School District Police will now earn 4 to 12 percent raises each year after winning an arbitrator's settlement in April.

The settlement offer also increases the salaries of entry-level officers by 15 percent, from $15.26 an hour to $17.59, or $36,587 a year, Phil Gervasi, Police Officers Association president, said.

The contract was long overdue, Gervasi said, as officers had been working without a contract for two years.

"We were the lowest paid police department in the city of Las Vegas," Gervasi said. "All we asked for was to be on parity with the next lowest, which is park police."

The 15 percent increase will also help the district to attract better officers, Gervasi said. The 154-person force has 20 applicants for 14 openings right now but is in need of many more officers to combat overtime issues, he said.

This year's increase, which was instituted in December before the arbitration was officially signed, will cost the district about $1.5 million, Gervasi said.

Gervasi said that while the school police increase is significantly higher than the 2 percent increase the district gave to teachers this year, the two contracts involve different hours and cannot be fairly compared.

A beginning teacher works 180 days for a starting salary of $27,931 while new school police work 240 days for an annual salary of $36,587.

Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent for the school district, agreed, adding that beginning teachers also receive a $2,000 signing bonus, which brings their salary closer to $30,000 a year.

School police racked up about $1.4 million in overtime last year, and both Gervasi and Rulffes said that needs to be reduced.