Top CCSD administrators quietly get $3M in new benefits

In his final weeks leading the Clark County School District, Superintendent Jesus Jara gave new contracts to his top administrators with added benefits that could cost taxpayers $3 million, a Review-Journal analysis of public records found.

Two elected School Board trustees said they learned of the pricey perks only after the Las Vegas Review-Journal filed records requests. Both trustees said they want the board to reconsider the regulation that the district contends allowed Jara to offer the benefits.

The new contracts, obtained through the requests, allow 63 “at-will” administrators to be paid more money for unused sick and vacation days when they leave district employment, according to union leaders and former administrators. At-will administrators are hired and fired, without union protections, by the superintendent.

“I had absolutely no idea that that language existed,” said trustee Lisa Guzman, adding she learned of it when the interim superintendent briefed her last week. “At a time when we’re trying to retain our educators, this doesn’t look good.”

Guzman said she believes Jara, who did not reply to requests for comment, is intentionally making school board members, with whom he repeatedly clashed, look bad by failing to notify them of the change.

“Dr. Jara did it to be spiteful,” she said, adding that the public will hold the elected, part-time school board members responsible for the superintendent’s actions. “Who has been coming after Dr. Jara and finally accomplished pushing him out? Who’s going to curse themselves for missing this?”

She said she speaks only for herself and not for the board as a whole.

‘Cronyism at its worst’

Tam Larnerd, who retired in 2021 as principal of Spring Valley High School, criticized the more lucrative cash-out benefits, which were not offered when he was an at-will administrator from 2011 to 2013.

“This is taxpayer money,” he said. “I think it’s cronyism at its worst. I’m sure the interim superintendent benefited from the golden handshake” from Jara upon his departure.

The historical practice has been for at-will administrators, with some exceptions, to cash out sick leave for a maximum of $2,500 when separating from the district — the same as administrators under the union contract, said Jeff Horn, executive director of the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees. The union does not negotiate contracts for at-will employees.

But now, for example, Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, who had been deputy superintendent under Jara, can cash out her accrued sick leave for $130,100. She received the lucrative cash-out provisions under the contract from Jara and again in her interim superintendent contract approved by the school board in May. Guzman said the trustees were told it was board counsel’s standard superintendent contract.

More than 30 at-will administrators could now cash out at least $50,000 in sick leave, records of leave accrual indicate.

The cash-out provisions amount to a “golden parachute” for Jara’s chosen administrators, said the head of the local teachers union, which was at odds with the former superintendent later in his tenure. Jara came on as superintendent in 2018.

“We’ve always said he bought loyalty and rewarded loyalty,” said John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association. Increasing payouts “to the highest-paid administrators in the school district … is another example of rewarding loyalty.” Teachers, he said, can cash out unused sick leave for just a few dollars a day.

In January, when his departure appeared imminent, Jara quietly gave raises to his cabinet, which was revealed in May by the Review-Journal. He’d done the same thing in 2021 when he was fired by the board only to be rehired. This time, the largest raises were 40 percent, 28 percent and 24 percent, while the rest were 8 percent.

The 8 percent is commensurate with what union-covered district administrators had received through contract negotiations. In December, an arbitrator approved an agreement that gave teachers a base pay increase of 10 percent the first year and 8 percent the second. In 2023, the Nevada Legislature set aside $250 million for raises for teachers and support staff while also approving more than $2 billion in new spending for K-12 schools.

The 63 contracts for at-will employees signed early this year cover positions that in many cases have “superintendent” or “chief” in the title — associate superintendent, chief operating officer — as well as attorneys for the district.

The contracts, which cover the 2023-2024 school year, were renewed unless the administrator left district employment.

A district regulation grants the superintendent authority to determine the salaries for at-will employees, according to the district. However, the regulation does not specify that the superintendent can provide other forms of compensation, such as increasing the amount of money at-will employees receive when cashing out sick and vacation leave.

Asked for the rationale behind providing the cash-out benefits, the district’s media relations department wrote in an email, “At-will employees do not have the protection of a collective bargaining agreement; therefore, the former Superintendent provided different benefits.”

The department declined further comment.

‘It’s just sickening’

The new contract provisions for the at-will administrators state that they can cash out up to 100 accrued sick days at their daily rate of pay. The average daily pay of the 63 at-will employees is nearly $700, translating to a payout of about $70,000.

Most of the at-will contracts provide a payout of one day’s pay for each day of unused sick leave up to 100 days. For 14 of the 63 administrators, the payout is one day of pay for each five days of accrued sick leave. The sick leave cash-outs could cost taxpayers more than $2.7 million, according to a Review-Journal analysis of leave accrual data obtained through a public records request.

In contrast, administrators who are not at-will employees can cash out up to 250 accrued sick dates for $10 per day, for a maximum payout of $2,500, according to the administrators’ union contract. Under this provision, the group of 63 would have been able to cash out less than $80,000.

“Ironically enough, it’s just sickening,” said retired school principal Darryl Wyatt about the increased sick leave cash-out provision. “It’s completely disrespectful to the other thousands of employees in the district,” none of whom receive a similar benefit.

When Wyatt retired in 2022 after more than 30 years with the district, he cashed out 200 unused sick days for a total of $2,000.

“The discrepancy is beyond laughable,” he said.

Horn said he’d learned of the cash-out provisions in the last couple of months.

“It gives me pause,” he said. “It’s a big dollar amount. It’s a big change from past practice.”

Tod Story, the district’s chief communication officer, said the cash-out provisions were not new but he would not elaborate. Story, an at-will administrator issued a contract this year that allows him to cash out one day for every five, did not respond to an interview request.

What is new is that Jara before his departure extended the generous cash-out benefits to all at-will employees, Horn said. Horn, who retired from the district in 2019 as an at-will administrator himself, said at-will administrators usually worked without employment contracts.

In 2022-2023, the only contracts issued were to at-will administrators hired from outside the district, the district said in an email. The two contracts for that year, obtained through a records request, included the more lucrative benefits. The contracts went before the School Board for approval, the statement said.

All at-will administrators had not been issued contracts since 2014-2015, the email said.

Records show that one administrator cashed out nearly $65,000 in sick leave in 2020 and three others more than $4,000 in 2021 and 2022.

The contracts issued by Jara early this year to at-will administrators also provide a payout of their daily rate of pay for each day of unused vacation without a cap on the number of days. The practice for other administrators, which generally also applied to at-will administrators, caps the number of days at 85. The payouts for the at-will administrators based on their accrued leave would total about $400,000 more than if their accrued vacation days were capped, records indicate.

Larsen-Mitchell, the highest-paid district employee, could cash out her unused vacation days for $134,600, about $24,000 more than under the historical practice.

She did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Holy cow’

Trustee Linda Cavazos said that she had been unaware of the increased cash-out benefits until she saw a Review-Journal records request on the issue.

“It’s disheartening to me that we are not properly informed and educated on what’s being proposed — in this case, the cash out of benefits,” she said, noting that she also was not speaking for the board.

If the administration had informed trustees sooner, “I’m not going to be as astounded as when I see a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request from a journalist such as yourself, and I’m going ‘holy cow,’” she said.

She questioned whether the money might have been better spent, such as on repairing storm-damaged Lundy Elementary School on Mount Charleston, estimated to cost several million dollars. The district, instead, is recommending not to reopen the only school in the area.

“It’s a drop in the bucket compared to something like this,” she said.

Other board members, including President Evelyn Garcia Morales — who is authorized to speak for the board — did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Coming back to haunt us’

The district’s media relations office stated in emails that the former superintendent had the authority to provide the cash-out benefits under district Regulation 4291.

Although Regulation 4291 states that salaries for at-will employees are at the discretion of the superintendent, it does not specifically address other forms of compensation.

Guzman said she believes that attorneys with the district likely reviewed the contracts to ensure their legality. A dozen attorneys were among the at-will employees issued the lucrative new contracts early this year.

The board put in place the regulation in 2021 to assist the district with employee recruitment and retention during the pandemic when key positions were hard to fill, she said.

She said she would request that an item be placed on the board’s agenda to revisit the policy.

“A policy that we passed is now coming back to haunt us,” Guzman said.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X. Hynes is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.