Clark County Superintendent Jesus Jara, left, congratulates new board member Adam Johnson after he is sworn in at Las Vegas City Hall, downtown, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 | 2 a.m.
After nearly six combative years at the helm of the Clark County School District, Superintendent Jesus Jara is on his way out, pending the School Board’s acceptance tonight of a negotiated resignation package.
If the deal is approved, Jara’s last day will be Friday. He’ll leave with a $250,000 severance check.
How did we get here?
Jara has had a rocky relationship with the Board, CCSD employees and unions, the community, and lawmakers since arriving here in 2018.
In general, CCSD has been plagued by stubbornly low student achievement, violence in schools, high teacher vacancies and other personnel turnover, poor labor relations and friction within the School Board.
Last year was particularly tumultuous, with controversies that included a bitter contract fight with the Clark County Education Association teachers union; a violent encounter between district police and predominantly Black students outside of Durango High School and an ensuing lawsuit by the ACLU of Nevada to access the records; a crippling cyberattack; an alleged misogynistic social media post about the CCEA president from an account with Jara’s name on it; and public calls from top state lawmakers for Jara to resign or be fired.
Neither Jara nor the School Board, which oversees the superintendent as its sole employee, have articulated exactly why he should leave or why they renegotiated his contract to allow for the quarter-million-dollar severance for a voluntary exit. But the School Board has indicated that it was willing to part ways in what it called an “amicable separation.”
Haven’t we been here before?
The School Board fired Jara for convenience in 2021, but the termination was reversed weeks later when one board member changed her vote and tipped the vote in the superintendent’s favor.
In between the votes, Jara’s personal attorney sent the School Board a letter claiming that some board members had subjected him to a hostile work environment. Through his lawyer, Jara sought $2 million in compensation. (The district later settled his retaliation and harassment claims for $95,000 in attorney’s fees.)
The Board also broached firing Jara in July 2020 but never got to a vote after enough trustees successfully called to adjourn the meeting. That movement came on the heels of then-Gov. Steve Sisolak publicly accusing Jara of “misleading the communities he represents.”
The two leaders disagreed on funding proposals being considered during a special session of the Nevada Legislature. A bill being considered by lawmakers during that special session would have allowed CCSD to tap the year-end balance of individual schools as unrestricted funds to shore up instructional programs losing funds. State leaders said CCSD requested the bill; Jara said he did not.
Now, Jara is seeking to leave on his own. He submitted a “conditional resignation” on Jan. 30. The Board met Feb. 7 to consider it but did not agree to the terms Jara originally sought. Tonight’s vote is the board’s second go after negotiating revised terms.
“We appreciate Superintendent Jara’s tireless commitment to the students of Clark County and recognize that taking advantage of this natural transition point is in everyone’s best interest,” the School Board said in a statement Friday. “This mutual agreement will allow the community to forge a new path, focused solely on student success. We appreciate the Superintendent’s willingness to help us move forward in a positive manner.”
What happened last time?
The board earlier this month declined to accept Jara’s initial resignation that called for a payout of $395,000, or a year’s salary, to him plus the value of unused benefits and time off. The board also declined to terminate him for convenience, as that would have cost close to $1 million in a salary buyout alone through his earlier planned contract ending in June 2026.
Board members opted instead for a “conditional termination” and to negotiate alternative exit terms. With the newest proposal, Jara is no longer being considered for termination.
As has often been the case on high-profile items, the School Board was initially split.
Members appeared to support him leaving, even those who have been allied with Jara over the years. They could not agree on giving him a year’s compensation to walk away.
“I was personally concerned with the ongoing vitriol and disrespect that some people in our community have for Dr. Jara,” said Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales, who has been supportive of Jara. “Earlier this year, Dr. Jara and I spoke and I asked him to consider a mutual agreement that would help us help him step aside and allow the district to focus on moving forward and refocus our community’s energy.”
Board Member Lola Brooks, another Jara supporter, said she was aware of the School Board’s reputation as being fractured, and she was moving forward in a unifying act.
“I think he is, has been, a very convenient scapegoat for some long-standing systemic issues. If we continue to focus on these interpersonal power struggles, we’re never going to actually talk about students or student success,” she said.
Board Member Irene Bustamante-Adams said she would accept the resignation, but “I cannot stomach the amount.”
Board Member Linda Cavazos said she saw Jara’s initial proposal not as conditional, but as a demand. Ramona Esparza-Stoffregan, a nonvoting member of the board and former CCSD principal, said Jara’s potential payout was worth several in-school social workers, counselors or aides.
She said the School Board didn’t have to voteFeb. 7, but if she could vote, she wouldn’t pay him out or use his timeline. (The current and prior proposals require an on-the-spot contract amendment to let him go promptly with a severance.)
Without naming names, Brooks said critics who had been willing to pay Jara whatever it takes to get him to leave now don’t want to pay him anything.
“There’s not going to be a solution that actually anybody — even if they say they’re happy right this moment — that they’re actually happy with,” she said. “They just move the goalposts.”
The School Board voted 4-3 to reject the initial resignation terms. The meeting audience cheered, applauded and pumped their fists at the decision to not give Jara the resignation package he wanted.
Why not for cause?
Also at the Feb. 7 meeting, several people said Jara should be fired for cause. (Cause is for a specific reason; convenience is for no given reason.) CCEA, a former ally, was among those saying he should be removed for cause, citing the district’s many challenges and controversies during Jara’s leadership.
Board Member Lisa Guzman said the community needed to understand why that wasn’t going to happen.
She referenced Jara’s contract, which lists eight reasons to end his contract for cause: failure to maintain educator certification; a criminal conviction involving moral turpitude or his employment; malfeasance; neglect or refusal to discharge his duties; willful refusal to follow a Board order; habitual intoxication or drug abuse; incapacitating illness; and death.
“This is really important, because nothing that we have could be terminated for cause,” Guzman said. “If we were to do that, we would be sued and it would be a very costly thing.”
The meeting is 5 p.m. at the Greer Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road.
