Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

The overgrowning issue of Clark County School district being too large to support itself continues to spark debate among parents, educators, and administration. As the fifth largest school district in the country, many advocate for breaking up the district to better serve the diverse needs of Clark County students.

On September 8, 2022 the Southern Nevada Chamber of Commerce announced a proposed breakup of CCSD by 2024 if Clark County voters approve the proposal, this decision was approved by different communities (The Vegas Chamber, Henderson Chamber of Commerce, Latin Chamber of Commerce, Urban Chamber of Commerce, Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, and Boulder City Chamber of Commerce.) “The ballot initiative is in the signature gathering phase and will qualify for the November 2024 ballot once it collects 140,777 valid signatures. The Nevada Legislature could also pass the initiative in its 2023 session, according to the Community Schools Initiative.” stated Las Vegas Review-Journal on September 12 2022

Being the fifth largest school district in America with more than 320,000 students attending, CCSD with a budget of 5.2 billion dollars (7,361 Per-pupil funding) receives one of the lowest budgets among school districts in the United States. Nevada ranks 43 in academic Performance, and has an overall rank of 42 among the 50 states in the United States.

Eight days after the announcement of CCSD “break up” on September 16, Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara sent a mass email to all CCSD employees stating, “Efforts to break up CCSD are not new. While we recognize the need to continue improving student academic performance. This current effort is based not on facts but on a bias-based fiction predicated on ignoring the evidence.” Dr. Jara was appointed as a superintendent in June of 2018, and his contract was renewed until July 2026, his salary was $300,000, and on Oct 5, 2022 his salary increased to $395,000.

One of superintendent Jara’s first actions involved dividing the district into three regions, each region having a superintendent who serves under superintendent Jara. Region number one superintendent: RoAnn Triana, region number two superintendent: Melissa Gutierrez, and region number three superintendent: Dr. Deanna Jaskolski, by dividing the district into these regions saved CCSD $1.5 million.

It is unlikely that the class environment would change, and students would be affected in any way, but it will bring competition between different districts and teachers, increasing staff members wages. Gregory Seitz, English teacher at Sierra Vista High School said, “When five different entities compete for different resources such as: labor, employees, Products, paper, computers, it drives prices up, it is already an underfunded district, and now it’s going to be five underfunded districts.”