‘More questions about transparency’: Superintendent Jara cashed out unused vacation

What wasn’t publicly disclosed was that in his final days in office, he already was cashing out all his unused vacation.

Jara cashed out more than $48,000 in unused vacation pay on Feb. 9, two days after the board rejected a proposed $500,000 severance deal that included a cash-out of unused vacation and sick leave. He cashed out another $1,600 in vacation on Feb. 23, his last day on the job, according to payment records obtained through public records requests.

Trustee Linda Cavazos said that not all trustees were fully informed of the conditions under which Jara was resigning.

“I felt that the way it was handled in public was not representative of what was actually going on,” she said, adding that she was not speaking for the board but for herself. “I thought it was misleading.”

However, the former superintendent told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday that his contract clearly stated that he could cash out unused vacation days.

“I exercised the clauses of my contract,” said Jara, who became the district’s superintendent in 2018.

An amendment to Jara’s contract made in January 2023 states that he “may elect to have the District compensate him for any unused vacation leave” at his daily rate of pay.

Jara said he was not at the Feb. 22 meeting when the board approved the severance deal and could not speak to whether it was well understood that he was receiving vacation pay in addition to the lump sum.

“I don’t have a vote, and that’s a question for the board,” he said, adding that Cavazos ought not to have been surprised.

“She voted on my contract, either way, up or down,” he said.

Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales — who is authorized to speak for the board — did not respond to a request for comment.

‘It raises more questions about transparency’

Democratic lawmakers late last year called for Jara to quit, citing a lack of accountability and stalled contract negotiations with the teachers union. On Feb. 1, the union called for Jara to be fired.

Garcia Morales said at the time that the superintendent was asked to “consider a mutual agreement” to help him step aside. She cited “ongoing vitriol and disrespect that some people in the community have for Jara.”

Trustees nixed the idea of ending Jara’s contract for convenience, meaning they would not have to cite a reason for termination. Some said this would have meant paying him $1 million for his full salary and benefits through the end of his contract in June 2026.

As part of the severance agreement the board ultimately approved, Jara waived “his right to payment for any portion of accumulated leave and compensatory time and unused sick leave he has remaining” at the end of his term.

Jara had zero days of unused vacation remaining and 40.5 days of unused sick leave upon his departure, according to an email from the district. The contract amendment permitting him to fully cash out vacation leave is silent on cashing out sick leave. However, if paid out at his daily rate of $1,600, the unused sick leave would have amounted to more than $65,000.

Since his contract was amended in January 2023, Jara cashed out nearly $98,000 in unused vacation days.

The head of the local teachers union said that Jara cashing out $50,000 in vacation in his final days should have been made public.

Jara “walked away with more money, and they weren’t transparent with the public about it,” said John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association. “It raises more questions about transparency on the part of trustees in the last days of Jara.”

Better benefits to be competitive

As first reported by the Review-Journal, Jara in January gave raises to 13 members of his cabinet – the highest were 40 percent, 28 percent and 24 percent – at an annual cost to taxpayers of $323,000.

Jara told the Review-Journal he increased the salaries to “make them competitive, to stabilize the district.” He said the district’s chief financial officer, who in January received a 24 percent raise of more than $51,000, makes less than his counterpart with the city of Las Vegas, which has a budget one-third the size of the district’s.

In 2022, the CFO for the city had a base salary of $241,000, the most recent Transparent Nevada data shows, while the school district’s CFO as of September 2023 had a base salary of $214,000, according to district records.

Jara also issued new contracts in January and February to more than 60 at-will administrators allowing them to cash out accrued sick and vacation leave for more money at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers. Between late March and early June, 12 at-will administrators cashed out $267,000 in unused vacation, records show.

Jara said that early in his tenure he began including language in the contracts for administrators hired from outside the district that allowed them to cash out sick and vacation leave for more money than had been the practice. These contracts went before the board for approval, he said.

He issued the new contracts to at-will administrators before his departure to provide the same benefits to those who had had been promoted from within the district. They had been working without contracts.

Municipalities have generous cash-out provisions that, he said, are “out-of-whack compared to the fifth-largest school district” in the country.

“To make sure you keep high-quality and competent executives, you have to provide better benefits,” he said.

Tuesday evening, Prometric, a provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment solutions, announced that it had hired Jara to guide its expansion into the the K-12 sector following its acquisition of EdPower, a cloud-based suite of AI-powered tools designed to support continuous student improvement.

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.