Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara waits for the start of a school board meeting as teachers protest outside the Clark County School District Education Center Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. The Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association, the teachers union, are in contract negotiations.
Friday, Jan. 5, 2024 | 5:06 p.m.
The Clark County School District wants the public to have more access to its employee contract negotiations.
Superintendent Jesus Jara said Friday that whether that would require legislation is to be determined; he said he still needs to discuss such transparency reforms with district staff and the School Board. But he said he hopes opening up negotiation sessions to the public could apply to government employees statewide.
This comes after a bruising, monthslong process that was resolved just before Christmas with 18% across-the-board raises for teachers over the next year and a half — but not without CCSD calling an impasse after 11 bargaining sessions; a judge’s injunction to block continuation of a teacher strike in September, the first and only public-sector strike since they were outlawed more than 50 years ago; a flurry of lawsuits and state employee relations board complaints, many of which are still pending; the teachers union and allied, high-ranking state lawmakers calling for Jara to resign or be fired; and plenty of angst all around.
Jara said inviting the public to negotiations would give accountability to employers and employee unions, speed along the process, and help people understand directly what was going on.
He said teachers reached out to district staff to get clarification on union communications during negotiations.
“Our teachers were frustrated with a level of distrust (for) both,” Jara said.
Additionally, the community “would understand that the district is putting (forth) a viable offer,” he said.
The district and Clark County Education Association (CCEA) announced Dec. 20 that an arbitrator had accepted a contract agreed to and submitted by both parties without the arbitrator’s guidance.
Jara apologized for how long it took to settle a contract and said that even though CCSD declared impasse in September, it wanted a third party involved. However, the district and CCEA were negotiating the whole time, he said.
“It wasn’t that the arbitrator picked theirs over ours,” Jara said.
The arbitrator did not hold any hearings. Because the contract was approved by an arbitrator, it does not need to be ratified by union membership or signed off on by the School Board.
The new entry-level salary will be $54,000. The ceiling will be about $129,000. It will apply to teachers hired after Jan. 31, the district said Friday in a memo to teachers.
The raises for existing staff will hit in the first paycheck in February, the district said. Retroactive pay for base salary and coach and adviser stipends dating back to July 2023 will land in March.
Here’s what else is new in the contract:
- A $78.63 increase in CCSD contributions to the Teachers Health Trust health insurance plan for all enrolled employees this year, and a $66.19 increase next year.
- A supplemental 1.875% wage increase effective halfway through the current school year through June 30, 2025, to make up for the state-levied increase to employee contributions to the state retirement system. Because this increase is proposed to be funded by SB 231 monies, it is pending approval of the state Interim Finance Committee, which is set to meet next in February. SB 231 is the bill passed last year to distribute $250 million to school districts statewide for teacher and support staff raises.
- Increases in “extra instructional pay” and coaches’ pay.
- Effective next school year, $5,000 increases in pay for special education teachers and for teachers at high-poverty schools that have a 5% or more vacancy rate. These are also proposed to be paid through SB 231 funds.
What the contract does not have: a “look back” that would have reset veteran teachers on a pay scale better reflecting the years of experience and advanced education of seasoned educators. This would have led to potentially significant raises for the majority of teachers. Such a look back was touted by both CCSD and CCEA to address salary “compaction” that made for only small pay gaps between newer and more senior teachers.
Jara said his negotiator said they would have a deal if CCSD would consider dropping the look back. He called the concession “unfortunate” but said he agreed to it to give teachers the raises they did get.
“The inequities in the salary schedule are going to grow,” he said. “There’s going to be teachers that are going to get placed on a salary schedule higher than the current teachers in the Clark County School District, which is unfortunate, but that is the deal that CCEA wanted.”
CCSD had initially offered to review all of its teachers for a new scale. In July, it said 78% of teachers would receive an increase based on their experience and education. Later, it said it would review teachers hired through 2016 because that’s when a new pay scale started based on an internal professional development system.
In a Dec. 22 email to its membership, CCEA explained the lack of lookback differently.
“It is not part of this agreement. CCEA’s objective was to ensure that there was funding available for our key demands where EVERYONE benefited and allowed us to be able to address the recruitment and retention issues our district is facing with the high vacancies. We accomplished that,” the union said. “The district’s proposal shifted several times during negotiations as to who would be eligible, and why CCSD would be the sole determiner as to who would get it, how much the adjustment would be, etc. We believe that CCSD used this tactic to create a wedge in the bargaining unit by pitting teachers against each other. In the end, CCEA proposed to have a ‘salary placement review’ to be done in the second year of the contract with criteria agreed to as to who would be eligible and what placement adjustment, and that those eligible would see an adjustment in the third year out. CCSD walked away from that proposal.”
Jara said committing to something outside of the 2023-25 contract timeframe wasn’t feasible.
“For them to say we walked away from it, that’s disingenuous,” he said.
The restoration of the pension contribution would roll out in February and March, the district said, assuming Interim Finance Committee approval of the SB 231 allotment. The committee next meets Feb. 8.
Like all state employees, other CCSD employee groups, including administrators and support staffers, also have to pay 1.875% more toward their retirements, but unlike teachers, never saw their checks drop by that amount because they agreed to let the district advance that part of their presumed raises before they settled their contracts. CCEA did not agree to this, Jara said.
“I want to make sure everybody is very clear. … That money goes away in 2025 unless the speaker (of the Assembly) and the (state) Senate majority leader put it back into the budget,” he said.
CCEA told its members that the pension restoration won’t sunset; “while we cannot guarantee the outcomes of legislative sessions or elections, we have received commitments for the continuation of SB 231 funding in the 2025 legislative session.” The union didn’t say who committed to that or how.
The union also told its members that it will “begin a process that will objectively assess how many educators could have an adjustment to their salary based on criteria established in the new salary schedule. We will be doing this for CCEA members only.”
Jara was skeptical.
Fewer than 60% of teachers are paying CCEA members, according to district data.
“They represent everybody,” he said. “They don’t represent just their members.”
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