CCSD board president talks hunt for new leader, pay raise plan
Clark County School Board trustees will discuss the search process for an interim superintendent at a public meeting Thursday but are unlikely to decide on a temporary replacement for ousted leader Jesus Jara, according to board President Linda Cavazos.
“We’re going to start out with trying to determine what process we would like,” Cavazos said Wednesday in her first public comments since the board terminated Jara’s contract by a 4-3 vote on Oct. 28 “for convenience,” meaning trustees didn’t need to provide a reason. “I want this to be something that is fair, inclusive, but also not stretched out interminably.”
Cavazos said it’s possible the board could decide on a process for appointing an interim superintendent and come up with some names for consideration at the 5 p.m. meeting at the Greer Education Center in Las Vegas. But she said the board isn’t likely to appoint a temporary leader after a single meeting.
Jara, who became superintendent of the nation’s fifth-largest public school system in 2018, said in an email to Clark County School District staff on Tuesday that he will remain on the job until Dec. 1.
Jara pay raise plan unexpected
Cavazos also said she was surprised by a memo from Jara to the School Board indicating that he plans to award $408,564 in base salary increases to members of his Executive Cabinet.
Pay increases would range from about 5 percent to 28 percent, depending on the position. A footnote in the memo said the new salaries would also be subject to a 3 percent increase with approval of the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees contract.
Cavazos posted Tuesday night on the development on Twitter: “Further review of these raises is possible, but I cannot definitively comment at this time.”
She acknowledged in Wednesday’s interview that the board had engaged in previous discussion with Jara about the need to raise wages to compete nationally for talent and retain administrators “at a time of instability.”
The board also approved a regulation in August authorizing the superintendent to adjust salaries for at-will administrators who can’t participate in the collective bargaining process, as Jara’s memo noted.
She said her understanding was that when Jara was ready to make the move, he would notify the board. He did so in the memo dated Monday, but she said that was unexpected, “especially under the current circumstances.”
Jara said it’s an operational decision, and “he is correct on that,” Cavazos said, but added she believes an amended budget that accounts for the pay raises will have to be brought before the board for approval.
School district representatives did not respond to a request for comment submitted on Tuesday.
The Review-Journal also reached out to the other six board members on Wednesday but received a response only from Trustee Katie Williams, one of three members who voted against ending Jara’s contract.
She confirmed that Jara first broached the subject of raises for senior district staff in January, saying they were needed to compete nationally.
Jobs unfilled; pay ‘so low’
“At the time we had three or four positions open, but because they were so low in pay, we couldn’t get anyone to accept,” she wrote in a text message.
After the August meeting where the regulation was approved to authorize the superintendent to adjust salaries for at-will administrators, Jara brought up the topic again, Williams said.
“After the termination of Dr. Jara, it makes sense he would try to help the district compete at a national level for talent as employees move on and (the) district goes into their next phase of hiring,” she said.
There was no public discussion at last week’s meeting of the reasons for Jara’s abrupt removal before his contract was to expire on Jan. 15, 2023.
But Williams told the Review-Journal on Wednesday that “half the board made a decision based on weak assumptions and with no foresight into the future as to how to move forward.” She did not elaborate.
Cavazos, who was among the trustees who voted to end Jara’s tenure, said that as of Wednesday no one had reached out to her to express a desire to be interim superintendent, and she hasn’t contacted anyone about whether they would be interested in the job.
She said she has received suggestions, though, about people who would be a good fit, including some locals with education experience and members of the business community active in education partnerships.
Cavazos said she thinks it’s likely the interim superintendent will be someone who already works for the district.
She also said she didn’t have exact figures on how much a payout or settlement of the remainder of Jara’s contract would cost the district.
Deep divisions remain
Cavazos, a marriage and family therapist by trade, said she hopes appointing an interim superintendent will be part of a “healing process” and a way to move forward for the sake of the school district. She acknowledged that “emotions are running very high right now” but said that trustees “ need to focus on the goals for the district for the kids.”
But the divisions were on display in a series of Twitter posts late Tuesday by Williams, who called out three of the trustees who voted to terminate Jara’s contract, saying “actions have consequences.”
In another, she said his plan to award salary increases to top district officials was intended “to show a giant middle finger to the most corrupt board in the country!”
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Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.
