Clark County teachers OK three-year deal

Union, district unite to lobby Legislature

Clark County teachers ratified a three-year contract that includes an increase in pay and health care contributions late Thursday, finalizing the longest pact with the Clark County School District in at least a decade.

The agreement also marks another new turning point: a commitment from both the school district and the teachers union to join forces to lobby the Legislature for additional money reserved for future raises.

The three-year contract running through the 2020-21 school year allows teachers to move a step up in the salary schedule, retroactive to June 1. They also will see an increase in monthly health care contributions from $538 to $583, retroactive to July 1, 2017.

Those investments will cost $51 million — with an additional $17 million going for employees to receive raises through the new Professional Growth System salary structure.

Teachers approved the contract with 91 percent of votes in favor, according to Clark County Education Association spokesman Keenan Korth. He did not provide the total number of votes cast. Only union members were allowed to vote.

The agreement, which now goes to the School Board for approval, marks the end of what union President Vikki Courtney called a long and frustrating process.

“The arbitration took well over a year and a half, and both sides together spent well over $1.5 million. We can no longer do business this way,” Courtney said in a statement. “The new agreement requires that the relationship has to change.”

Moving forward, both the union and the district will need to petition the Legislature in 2019 for future raises.

The union proposed a similar plan in the last legislative session, requiring the district to reserve a set amount of money for a salary incentive program. The bill didn’t make it through the Legislature.