Change of heart
School Board votes to reverse superintendent’s firing
The Clark County School Board has rescinded Superintendent Jesus Jara’s firing, but he says he’s not sure whether he wants to stay on with the district.
As with an initial vote last month to terminate him, the board was split 4-3 early Friday in reversing its decision. It came down to only one trustee, Irene Cepeda, changing her mind. The vote came about 12:30 a.m.
“In a time of abundant uncertainty, our district needs stability,” said Trustee Evelyn Garcia Morales, who voted in favor of Jara. “Stability comes from consistency.”
The board listened to commenters for and against the superintendent, such as Roger West, a middle school principal, who said Jara had focused on core teaching and learning processes and hired good administrators.
“We’ll be lucky if we get him back,” said former Trustee Jose Solorio. “But you know what, he looks after the kids first, and I think he’s the kind of guy that will come back and will deliver.”
Others disagreed.
“Let me make this clear to all of you: Your constituents do not want Jesus Jara as their superintendent,” kindergarten teacher Nicole Hess said. “His termination was the literal only ray of sunshine in this dumpster fire of a school year for all of us as staff.”
Special education teacher Dolly Rowan said she feared the decision would be “part of the destruction of our district.”
“Bringing Jara back is not going to help build Clark County School District,” she said. “I personally would like to see him move on so that we can rebuild, so that you can start working together, because he’s just divided us.”
For his part, Jara — who was not at the meeting — was noncommittal about his future.
“After last night’s vote by the Board of Trustees to reverse its prior termination decision, which would potentially allow me to continue as CCSD’S superintendent, I am working with my legal counsel to review this development,” he said in a Friday afternoon statement.
With the previously set Dec. 1 termination date erased, his Jara’s contract expires in January 2023. However, Jara’s personal attorney sent the school board a demand letter earlier this month demanding $2 million in compensation over accusations that some trustees created a hostile work environment for the superintendent.
The board also voted early Friday, by the same split, to spend up to $100,000 on an outside consultant to investigate the allegations.
“Given the concerns that I have previously expressed, we intend to work with the board and its legal counsel to deter
“Given the concerns that I have previously expressed, we intend to work with the board and its legal counsel to determine if there is a pathway that would allow me to continue as superintendent while also implementing appropriate assurances to address and eliminate the harassment and hostile work environment.
CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara
mine if there is a pathway that would allow me to continue as superintendent while also implementing appropriate assurances to address and eliminate the harassment and hostile work environment,” Jara said in the statement.
Trustees Katie Williams, Lola Brooks and Garcia Morales, who had previously voted against firing Jara, joined with Cepeda to reverse the termination. Trustees Linda Cavazos, Danielle Ford and Lisa Guzman voted against the reversal, maintaining their votes from October.
Cepeda said she knew “for a fact” that four trustees had made “multiple unethical communications” in violation of open meetings law. She did not elaborate, even after Ford asked what the violations were.
The board’s October vote to terminate was “for convenience,” meaning it did not have to give any particular reason.
Jara started at CCSD in June 2018. His base salary is $320,000 a year.
Tensions have flared off and on between Jara and the school board, which oversees him, and teachers, parents and others in the community throughout his tenure.
In 2019, Jara announced the district was eliminating deans in the middle and high schools as a cost-saving measure. Though principals cast a vote of no confidence in Jara and he said he would try to save the deans, who handle disciplinary issues, CCSD ultimately ended up phasing out the position.
In 2020, Ford filed a complaint with the Nevada Commission on Ethics accusing Jara of directing a district lobbyist to meet with a board candidate and of using his position to get his son a job with the lobbyist’s sheet metal union. The ethics commission rejected all the complaints.
The board broached firing Jara in July 2020 but never got to a vote after enough trustees called to adjourn the meeting. This May, a split board extended his contract into January 2023.
More recently, between the first firing vote and now, Jara faced backlash after announcing raises for his executive cabinet, although district policy and records show the board empowered the superintendent to give his executives raises.