Jara outlines allegations against CCSD board president in email

Two days before his contract was terminated, Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara emailed the board president and outlined allegations about her behavior, including that she sent a text message to his chief of staff implying he had support to become the next superintendent.

Jara alleged information had been leaked from closed sessions and one-on-one meetings. He also said that Board President Linda Cavazos contacted his chief of staff — Christopher Bernier, who isn’t named in the email — via “confidential” text to urge him “not to leave the district with the insinuation that he would have your support to replace me as superintendent.”

“It is difficult to find the words to describe the difficulty that such behavior adds to a nearly impossible job,” Jara said.

But he told Cavazos that despite those challenges, “I am still willing to pursue my job responsibilities for the students in Clark County School District.”

The Review-Journal obtained the Oct. 26 email from Jara to Cavazos through a public records request.

The school district didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline Friday afternoon.

Cavazos said Friday she and the chief of staff get along well and do exchange text messages, noting that some members of the cabinet and staff contact trustees.

She said the text message was four words long and was “nowhere in the arena of what he is saying the insulation is here.”

Cavazos said it would take a lot of assumptions to draw that conclusion, noting she was surprised when she saw that mentioned in the email from Jara.

The School Board voted 4-3 on Oct. 28 to terminate Jara’s contract “for convenience,” which means the board didn’t have to provide a reason.

The board met Thursday to discuss the process for appointing an interim superintendent, but the meeting was abruptly adjourned without a decision.

Jara has led the nation’s fifth-largest school district since 2018. His contract was slated to continue until Jan. 15, 2023.

Jara wrote in the email to Cavazos that the past nine months have been “extremely challenging due to untruths and information that is leaked from closed sessions and our 1:1 meetings.”

It was “kind of a sweeping comment” about information being leaked, Cavazos said, also noting Jara’s comment didn’t specifically name her.

She said she has never leaked anything from a closed session in the more than four years she has been on the board. “Nothing is to be revealed from the closed sessions.”

One-on-one meetings are “kind of different entities,” and are held with each trustee and the superintendent, Cavazos said.

During the one-on-one meetings, public information as well as confidential information can be shared, Cavazos said, noting Jara lets them know what is confidential.

In the email to Cavazos, Jara also wrote a “prime example of interference” with his work was placing the item to consider terminating his contract on the Oct. 28 school board agenda while he was representing the school district in Washington, D.C.

Jara said that due to Cavazos’ conduct and “in an effort to maintain open lines of communication with you,” he was immediately communicating with her only via email to conduct official school district business.

He also said one-on-one meetings between them would be in person only and include a witness — the school board vice president, secretary or board counsel. Jara said he would need to reschedule a meeting that day with Cavazos.

In an email response the same day, Cavazos said she had no problem with the revised structure and would be happy to have Vice Chair Irene Cepeda attend the meetings.

“Regarding the rest of your email content, I will possibly answer you this evening with a much more detailed statement regarding my own concerns, which are considerable in many areas,” Cavazos wrote.

Cavazos said Friday that Jara didn’t reschedule that day’s meeting, and also canceled one-on-one meetings with her scheduled for Nov. 9 and 23.

She also said she didn’t send him back a longer email, noting she was hoping she would get a chance to talk with him during a one-on-one meeting.

Thursday’s board meeting

During Thursday’s school board meeting, a motion to accept letters of interest and resumes for interim superintendent until Nov. 10 failed.

Trustee Katie Williams then made a motion to follow the board’s emergency superintendent succession policy.

But Cavazos made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which superseded it and which trustees approved 6-1, with Williams abstaining.

Early Friday morning, Cavazos posted on Twitter that she was hopeful after “carefully working through the process of listening to everyone, and appearing to reach agreement.”

“It didn’t work out, and I accept responsibility for adjourning to prevent passage of a motion that would have totally excluded our community voices,” she wrote.

There was discussion at the board meeting about the emergency superintendent succession policy, which appears to be SE-7 that was most recently revised in 2016. The majority of trustees said they didn’t believe the current situation constituted an emergency.

The policy states: “The Superintendent has identified to the Board at least two other executives familiar with Board and Superintendent policies, processes and issues, who could step into the role of Interim Superintendent in an emergency.”

But nearly all board members didn’t know which two people had been named and Cavazos said she hadn’t reached out to anyone in the executive cabinet to inquire if they’re interested in becoming interim superintendent.

Brooks, who was previously board president, identified those two people as Deputy Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell and Chief Financial Officer Jason Goudie.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.