Clark County School District officially terminates ex-CFO

Six months after he was fired amid budget errors, the former chief financial officer of the Clark County School District is still collecting checks.

Jason Goudie’s separation is on the Clark County School Board’s agenda as an “information” item on Thursday. Goudie said in September that he was fired without cause.

Goudie’s contract states that if he is not renewed for any reason other than “just cause,” he receives six months of salary payments, compensation for unused vacation days and health insurance, according to records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

For a salary of $265,000, that’s $132,500, at a time when the school district faced what many labeled a “budget crisis.”

Goudie’s firing and subsequent payments came when the school district had budget errors that resulted in the state assigning a compliance monitor.

CCSD’s errors, which included a potential central deficit later plugged with leftover funds as well as miscalculations for teachers’ salaries and at-risk funding, resulted in cuts to programming, staff and supplies.

Thirty-six licensed professionals, 41 support professionals and five administrators were surplussed as a result, RoAnn Triana, chief of human resources, said in October. In the district, to be surplussed means to be reassigned, which can sometimes mean a move to an unwanted or lower-paying position.

Goudie was hired in 2017 and was one of the administrators who received a last-minute pay raise from former Superintendent Jesus Jara before he left the district. Deputy Chief Financial Officer Diane Bartholomew has served in the interim since September.

“The Clark County School District appreciates Mr. Goudie’s years of service as the District’s Deputy Superintendent of Business Administration and Chief Financial Officer, which ended on September 19, 2024,” CCSD said in a statement.

The school district said that Goudie was kept on the books to allow for the payments and that once they were completed, he would be removed from the district’s records as an employee.

Goudie declined to comment on Tuesday, stating that the contract speaks for itself.

The budget errors

In the fall, Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita called Goudie a “scapegoat” for larger issues in CCSD. Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell repeatedly blamed “silos” and a lack of communications and systems for the error.

The district has blamed its central budget deficit on $53 million in litigation and $15 million in cybersecurity costs.

It ended the fiscal year with no deficit, making up for it in carryover funds from the year prior, according to the final budget.

But the error that directly affected schools came in January 2024, when the projected budget failed to include the 8 percent raises it had agreed to in December with CCEA, and used the incorrect formula for at-risk funding, the district said.

CCSD under-projected the average cost of a licensed educator by $5,700, which, when multiplied for the 16,500 educators it budgeted for, meant almost $100 million spread across schools.

That means that when the issue was corrected in the fall, schools found themselves with higher costs for teachers for whom they had been given incorrect budgeting information.

Another error in January’s budget was the at-risk funding calculation, according to the school district. CCSD had calculated the amount of money schools would get for at-risk students based on the formula for free and reduced lunch calculation as opposed to the GRAD score.

The newer formula, introduced last year, reduced the amount of students eligible for at-risk funding across the district by 3,035 students, which meant that across the district, schools received $928,747 less than expected, according to documents provided by CCSD.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bksy.social.