CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara speaks to the media during a visit at Charles Silvestri Junior High during the first day of school, Monday Aug. 7, 2023.
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Clark County Schools Superintendent Jesus Jara hasn’t publicly responded to top state lawmakers’ most recent demands for new district leadership, but he has defended himself to the School Board.
In a letter to the board dated Nov. 9, Jara said the calls earlier this month by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Senate Majority Nicole Cannizzaro for him to resign or be fired were “disappointing.”
“While they may have their motivations and reasons, it is unfortunate that neither of them have reached out to me — or any superintendent across Nevada — to seek to understand the breadth of our work and why we chose to do it despite the challenges,” he wrote in the letter, which the Sun received through a public records request.
Yeager, D-Las Vegas, called for Jara’s resignation Nov. 1, saying Jara had “squandered this opportunity” to act on several legislative financial and policy actions passed this spring that were meant to improve education around the state, and particularly in CCSD. In his Nov. 6 follow-up saying that Jara should be fired, Yeager was additionally critical of how CCSD had communicated with the public about a crippling cyberattack.
Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, issued a statement Nov. 7 saying Jara should resign or be terminated. She called for “significant administrative reform” that could include a district restructuring.
School boards appoint, oversee and may fire superintendents. They do not report to state lawmakers. However, Yeager said he felt he had a “moral obligation” to demand Jara’s exit.
The district promptly responded to Yeager’s initial statement for Jara’s resignation, saying he would remain the superintendent as long as the School Board wanted it. In his communication with the board, Jara again said he would be superintendent as long as the board desires.
Otherwise, neither the district in general nor the board has responded to Yeager and Cannizzaro’s follow-up calls.
In his letter to the School Board, Jara said education had “become a battleground for adult political reasons that do not benefit our children’’ who are still struggling post-pandemic. He said schools must provide a comprehensive social safety net, and a history of insufficient funding was apparent in the state of district facilities, technology and cybersecurity.
He also pushed back against Yeager’s frustration with the implementation of a new teacher pipeline law requiring more high school vocational training for aspiring teachers by again saying that the program requires state regulations. (The Nevada Department of Education says the State Board of Education must set the program’s curriculum, but that doesn’t mean CCSD has to wait for regulations before starting the program.)
“Everyone in the community — including me — is frustrated with the pace of recovery after the pandemic,” Jara wrote. “With the pandemic setbacks and the years of neglect I inherited, it will take years to bring CCSD to where our kids deserve it to be. Because we are implementing basic systems that never before existed, we must maintain focus on our kids to fulfill our plans so they reap the benefits.”
Jara has led CCSD since 2018. The board attempted to fire him in 2021, but one board member reversed her vote before what would have been Jara’s last day.
The board voted in October 2022 to renew his contract through June 2026.
