LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — School starts on August 7 and CCSD teachers are eagerly waiting to see if their union and the district will come to an agreement on salaries.
On Wednesday, the district announced a tentative agreement with the administrators union, but the teachers' union is still trying to strike a deal for more money.
We looked at what the starting pay for teachers are in some west coast cities.
According to the CCEA, Nevada educators are some of the lowest on the list, with a starting salary of around $50,000 a year.
The following are starting salaries in nearby areas:
- $54,000 in Arizona
- $57,000 in Utah
- $62,000 in Los Angeles
We could find out if an agreement is reached with the teachers' union as early as this Saturday.
Here is what teachers in the county had to say to us about negotiations:
"They don't seem to care about us in the trenches, the ones of us who are doing the work...the other slap in face will happen if they do not increase their contributions towards our healthcare, their proposition as of the last negotiation meeting was zero," said Kelly Edgar.
"I recently looked at nearly every Utah school district, I would be making more," said Leonard Lither.
Thousands of CCSD teachers are waiting to see if they will be getting a raise. The union representing teachers, the Clark County Education Association, is pushing for an increase for all teachers.
Channel 13 tried to get an update from the CCEA Thursday but did not get a response.
We spoke to the executive director, John Vellardita, a couple weeks ago.
"We have been very public, we are looking, in the first year, a 10% raise across the board adjustment for all educators, the second year another 8% adjustment," he told us.
After a number of recent negotiation meetings with the district, the union has called an emergency meeting with thousands of teachers this Saturday, July 29 to present the district's latest offer.
Teachers will then decide what is next.
"Our educators passed a motion that 'hey we are not going to start a school year without a contract' and so we have to revisit that on July 29, they are going to make a decision, of course, that we are going to take," Vellardita with the CCEA told us.
I asked, is it possible school will start and teachers won't be going to work.
This was his reply:
"Everything is on the table."
At a new teacher orientation Thursday, Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara was asked about the negotiations.
"I can't comment, I don't negotiate in public and my board we have a plan, thats not why we are here. I can tell you which is what I said this morning I brought it to my state of the schools we know educators need to be compensated."
Now we are getting down to the wire.
"The teachers are not going to have it," said CCSD Teacher Leonard Lither.
Now teachers will wait to see what the last offer is come Saturday.
"At this point, from what I have heard from our teachers' union is they do not want to give everyone a 10% raise," said CCSD Teacher Kelly Edgar.
Teachers are set to meet Saturday morning. The CCEA will be updating us shortly after that at a press conference at 11 a.m.
Channel 13 will be there and we will bring you the very latest.
