LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The long and hard-fought battle over better teacher pay is finally over with the newly approved contract between the Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association.
It means more money for our valley's educators, but not everyone is happy.
CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara says you can count him among those who are unhappy about the disparity in pay between experienced teachers and new hires.
In the new contract, the pay scale is changing to reflect educational experience and years of teaching. However, that only applies to new employees, which means many experienced teachers will now make less than those just coming into the district at the beginning of their teaching careers.
"I'm sorry," Dr. Jara said. "I'm sorry that we couldn't get it done for you. But I could only hold out, and then we just signed a deal as we had to. I feel terrible about it but couldn't hold out any longer."
PREVIOUSLY: A recap of the ongoing contract negotiations between the teachers' union and CCSD
Jara said when he came into CCSD, he inherited the lack of salary match, which stopped around 2015.
"We stopped paying for years of service, and we stopped paying for education. To me and our school board of trustees, that was our fundamental change that we needed to have happen in this contract."
With the historic funding from the last legislative session, "We had an opportunity to do right by our veterans. The first proposal we provided to our teachers' union was to go back and do a look-back and address all these inequities. That's not what happened."
"Why did that get scrapped?" asked 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears.
"You can't ask me," Jara said. "You've got to ask the teachers' union. Now, the inequities are going to get bigger. And that's going to be a problem."
A Clark County Education Association spokesperson said, "Let's be clear that the district places people on the pay scale, not CCEA. So, if Jara is talking about inequities, it's inequities that he created. The district has never been sincere in providing any kind of payday placement for teachers who have been in the district for some time."
"The CCEA contract agenda was based on a survey in December 2022 where several thousand members indicated what they wanted to see in their contract. Every key demand we brought to the table on March 30, 2023, we won in this contract. At no time in that survey was there any discussion about a look back."
Teachers speaking to Channel 13 and commenting in online forums call the pay inequity the "one big flaw" in the new contract.
One teacher said, "Not honoring degrees and credentials is criminal."
Another said his PhD isn't being taken into account, and it's costing him $10,000 a year. Another with a master's degree said a new hire with the same educational attainment would earn at least $12,000 more than she would.
Jara relayed a story about his conversation with an elementary school teacher.
"Great teacher, has been with us for 11 years, and she came in, and she goes, 'I'm mentoring someone who's been here two years from California and making $15,000 more than I am.' And I said, 'We're going to address this.' This was before the bargaining started. I said, 'Please know we're going to address it.' Going into that school, how do I face her when it didn't get done? But those are questions you can't ask me."
Jara blames the teachers union for failing to erase that inequity during the bargaining process. "I feel terrible that we couldn't get it done, but to bargain, two parties have to bargain."
The CCEA says, "This is a contract worth $750 million. On the low end, teachers receive 23 percent raises, and on the high end, 35 percent in this contract. All teachers are affected by this. No teacher is losing money on their placement. Every teacher is making significantly more money with this contract."
