Superintendent Jesus Jara attends a CCSD School Board of Trustees meeting at the Clark County School District Education Center Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.
Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 | 7:40 p.m.
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After more than a month of uncertainty, Jesus Jara has committed to remaining as the superintendent of the Clark County School District through the end of his contract, he told the Sun Friday afternoon.
Jara said he reached agreement with the board of trustees to continue in his duties managing the 305,000-student district at least through the remainder of his contract, which runs through Jan. 15, 2023.
“The majority of the board and I, we’ve put all our differences aside to come together on behalf of our community and our kids,” he told the Sun.
In a statement released Friday by the district, Jara said that next week would start a new chapter in focusing on the needs of CCSD’s students.
“Over the last five weeks, we’ve seen too much adult-centered attention instead of focusing on the 305,000 students we’re here to serve,” he said in the statement. “As my team continued to lead our district — the fifth-largest in America — through devastating pandemic-related learning disruptions and challenges for our students’ mental health, there were too many adult-centered distractions that caused instability for our students, parents, and our team. That is unacceptable, and now is the time to move forward.”
In a statement, the trustees said they “will continue striving for a more collaborative, respectful and supportive board and superintendent relationship. ... We move forward by refocusing our attention on the students of this District and their academic outcomes through our roles as trustees.”
Jara stressed to the Sun that he wanted parents to feel that stable district leadership would be taking care of their children at school and keeping up the work he started when he arrived in 2018 to lead the district.
“We’ve got to get back to work,” Jara said. “Our kids are counting on the adults that we provide the opportunity so they can succeed.”
The board voted 4-3 Oct. 28 to terminate him “for convenience,” meaning it didn’t have to give a reason. Had the termination held, it would have ended his contract Wednesday.
Trustees rescinded the firing Nov. 19 after Irene Cepeda switched her vote in Jara’s favor, citing unspecified open meeting law violations surrounding the firing. The new 4-3 vote made it so that the termination never happened.
Jara hours after the reversal vote released a statement indicating he was working with his lawyers to consider options in light of his allegations of harassment and a hostile work environment created by some trustees. The noncommittal statement referenced the harassment and hostility claims, along with a request for $2 million to drop the accusations.
Jara said Friday there would be “assurances” in place going forward to address his claims of being micromanaged by the board. He said there would be clear boundaries around the management duties of the superintendent, who is the district’s appointed administrative top boss, and the oversight of the elected seven-member governing board.
A district spokesman said Friday night that a formal document affirming what Jara called the "guardrails" between board and superintendent responsibilities will be forthcoming next week, once it has been cleared legally.
Although Jara has spent less time interacting directly with trustees in the past month, including not being present for trustee meetings since the termination vote, he said he would be back for the next meeting on Dec. 9.
He also said he would be open to staying with CCSD beyond his current contract.
“We have no other choice but to improve because our community is counting on us to provide stable leadership, both at the board and at my office and the team,” he said.
