Some CCSD support professionals to get bonuses next school year

Education support professionals at 23 Clark County School District elementary schools will receive a $7,500 bonus next school year.

The School Board voted 4-0 on Thursday to approve an agreement between the school district and the Education Support Employees Association regarding the bonuses. Trustees Katie Williams, Lisa Guzman and President Evelyn Garcia Morales weren’t in attendance.

The recruitment or retention incentives — which are for employees at schools within The Transformation Network — will cost the district an estimated $2.6 million.

The district’s newly formed Transformation Network is a group of 23 elementary schools that are receiving additional academic support: Booker, Clyde Cox, Dearing, Dickens, Duncan, Ira Earl, Harmon, Herr, Jeffers, Kelly, King, Long, Lunt, Lynch, Perkins, Petersen, Hal Smith, Tartan, Thomas, Thorpe, Wilhelm, Wendell Williams and Wynn.

Support employees at those schools will receive the bonus in two payments: one on Dec. 13 and one after the end of next school year. Bonuses will be prorated for those who start after Jan. 1, 2024.

Employees must be assigned only to a school within The Transformation Network to receive the bonus. School bus drivers, for example, won’t be eligible.

Workers must also be rated as “meets standards” or “exceeds standards.”

The agreement doesn’t include an estimate of how many employees will receive bonuses, but the 23 schools represent just a fraction of the district’s more than 360 campuses.

Education support professionals include job categories such as school secretaries, campus security monitors, paraprofessionals and aides.

Education Support Employees Association President Jan Giles told trustees she is in support of the incentives.

The association understands the difficulties in recruiting and retaining employees at The Transformation Network schools, and the incentive will ensure the campuses are properly staffed, she said.

The goal is to have all of the education support professional vacancies filled at those schools so students will receive all of the services they need and deserve, Giles said.

In February, the School Board approved an agreement with the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees to provide incentives to school-based administrators within The Transformation Network next school year.

There is no agreement between the school district and the Clark County Education Association for similar bonuses.

Public comment

During a public comment period, a handful of school employees and parents expressed opposition to what they said is a school district plan to increase class sizes and have only one support staff member in each classroom in a preschool program for children who have autism.

Commenters said the changes to the KIDS program will create safety concerns and not enough supervision for children who require one-on-one attention.

“We understand the increasing needs of our families and serving the growing number of children in our autism programs,” school officials said in a statement. “As we continue working with Nevada legislators on compensation for our hardworking educators, our ongoing advocacy for proper student-teacher ratios in the classroom must align with state expectations and collective bargaining agreements.

The district “provided schools with a budget that includes funding for one licensed educator and one Specialized Program Teacher Assistant (SPTA) in each KIDS Program classroom,” the statement said. Administrators also have “the option to fund a second SPTA position for KIDS Program through the school’s strategic budget or may request additional support assistance through the district for extenuating circumstances.”

Several speakers also raised concerns about antisemitism in the school system after a 17-year-old Jewish student who has autism allegedly had a swastika scratched into his back in mid-March at Clark High School.

Public commenters on Thursday asked for actions, such as creating a board committee or putting the topic on a future meeting agenda.

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