Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

ccsd:

Superintendent: ‘We have no other choice but to improve’

1st Day of School in Clark County

Christopher DeVargas

CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara joins in on Toni Gasbarrino’s 12th grade virtual English class at Basic Academy of International Studies during the first day of the 2020-21 school year, Monday Aug 24, 2020.

Jesus Jara immigrated to Florida from Venezuela as a child. If it weren’t for the education he received, culminating in a doctorate, he would have never gotten out of poverty, he said.

Many of the children in the Clark County School District have a similar upbringing, and deserve a similar opportunity for a better life through education, he stresses. It’s those “kids like me” who the CCSD superintendent couldn’t help thinking about over the past few weeks as he mulled his future in Las Vegas.

That future is now.

Jara reached an agreement with the board of trustees late Friday 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.

There was more than a month of uncertainty after Jara was terminated by the board in late October, only to have the vote rescinded three weeks later. But now, with the agreement in place, Jara’s sole focus is continuing the work of the past three and a half years.

In an interview Friday afternoon with the Sun, the superintendent said he wants to continue the work of his equity commission, fill staffing gaps to address a teacher shortage, and prudently spend the district’s $770 million in pandemic relief.

This will be made easier, he said, with less of the friction that has characterized the superintendent’s relationship with the school board.

“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,” Jara told the Sun.

When Jara took the helm at CCSD in 2018, he inherited a district hobbled by near-record financial deficits amid all-time high tensions with employee unions.

He said he started putting improvement plans in place, and he wants to see them through.

“When I took this job three and a half years ago, I made a commitment to the students and families of this district, and over the past three and a half years, I’ve worked to create real solutions to some of our greatest challenges — staffing shortages, mental health, equity, and a safe return to in-person learning, among others,” he said in a formal statement late Friday confirming that he would be staying on the job.

"I’m proud of the work our team has done leading our system and our students through one of the greatest disruptions to their learning and well-being that any of us have ever faced, and my work here isn’t finished.”

Jara said there will be “assurances” in place going forward to address his claims of being micromanaged by the board. He explained these as 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.

Jara said he wants parents to know there’s stability in leadership, especially with the tumult of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, that’s not suffering from what he called “adult-centered distractions.”

Jara told the Sun he found resolve to stay with CCSD within a few days of the board meeting to terminate him. A few days after being terminated, Jara said he was taking a walk in his neighborhood when he saw a boy, about middle-school aged, going door to door with fliers for his mom’s house-cleaning service.

“That’s what I did for my mom,” Jara said. “I said to myself, ‘That kid needs a superintendent. He’s one of my kids.’ ”

He continued, passionately saying, “That’s where you have to put your adult issues aside and focus on our students.”

Jara wants to provide the same opportunities for rigorous academics and updated school buildings in Las Vegas’ urban core that students in more affluent suburbs get.

He said he needs to “double down” on filling staff shortages, including teachers. Nevada colleges produce about 800 teachers a year; the state needs a more robust pipeline to train homegrown educators, he said.

He pointed to a new program at UNLV that helps CCSD support staff, like aides, become teachers.

Jara said he believes the majority of the school board is committed to the same goals. He was fired “for convenience,” meaning school board members didn’t have to give a reason. Had the termination held, it would have ended his contract Wednesday.

Three weeks after the vote to fire Jara, on Nov. 19, the board rescinded the termination after trustee Irene Cepeda switched her vote in Jara’s favor, citing unspecified open meeting law violations surrounding the termination. In between votes, Jara lobbed claims that certain trustees had forced him into a hostile work environment; when the board reversed the firing, he said he needed to think it over in light of the claims of harassment he’d made.

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.”

And Jara isn’t just finishing out his contract over the next 13 months. He’s isn’t opposed to staying with CCSD long-term, saying he would be open to another contract once his expires.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “There’s a lot of great things happening in individual schools. We have pockets of excellence. What we need is a system of excellence.”