LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For the past few days, teachers have been gathering on school campuses across the valley to rally for better pay.
As the Clark County Educators Association continues to negotiate potential pay raises with the school district, multiple rallies have been held over the past three days, and teachers say they're ready to continue until a contract is secured.
On Wednesday, teachers gathered at Centennial Hills High School, Arbor View High School, Shadow Ridge High School, as well as the Northwest Career and Technical Academy.
"We're out here trying to drive the message home that we want a contract," said Michael Jahn, a teacher at Centennial told Channel 13. "We want a contract, we want to get paid fairly, and the district has the money."
He continued, "Despite the district's denials about SB231, the author of the bill, Senator Cannizzaro, recently came out and told them that their concerns are ridiculous, to quote her directly."
Jahn claims that CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara is being "untruthful" with the public about the allotted funding. In a one-on-one interview with Channel 13, Dr Jara said his concern is with "how" teachers are being paid, rather than "what."
"Teachers need to be paid for their experience and their degrees," he said. "I think how we get there is something that needs to be addressed at the bargaining table."
Senate Bill 231, which allotted over $250 million in extra state funding to encourage raises for teachers and support staff, is the subject of contention between teachers and officials. District claim that the legislation is a "one-time payment" that cannot be used for reoccurring charges, and could not sufficiently bolster any raise given to teachers.
Many teachers — and even legislators — are pushing back on that.
"The argument that the district keeps making is that it's one-time money and they're afraid that it's going to go away," said Jeremy Christensen, a math teacher at Arbor View High School. "But that doesn't make sense, the legislature wouldn't have allocated money for teacher raises for two years and then take that money back."
He adds, "Legislators themselves are saying that that's not the intention."
SB321 was sponsored by Nevada Senator Nicole Cannizzaro, who recently came out in support of teachers on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying, "Biggest state K-12 education budget in history, a 26% increase in per-pupil spending — we can afford to give teachers and staff the raises they deserve!"
Support for teachers has not only come from the state legislature, though. Christensen says some of the most valuable support he sees comes from parents and students.
"It's nice that we've had a few parents and a few kids come out to support us," he said. "I think most of the kids agree, but nobody wants to be standing out in the street at 6:30 in the morning. People want to get their minds set for their education. But it's nice to have that support, we got a lot of support on social media."
He continues, "I think it's pretty much universal, the only people in Clark County who are fighting against this money being used for teacher raises are the school district administrators. Most building administrators are very supportive of us. It's just a small group of people down at the district office that are out of touch with the front lines of education."
As for how long the rallies will continue, teachers say they're ready to keep going until they get a contract. The CCSD School Board is set to meet tomorrow night, and teachers say they are expecting a big, supportive turnout.
Christensen said, "Let's get this done, so we can focus on our students and our kids."
