CCSD, teachers union reach tentative agreement on contract

The Clark County School District’s teachers union could soon have a new contract, according to a statement from Superintendent Jhone Ebert.

Ebert announced a tentative negotiated agreement between the district and the Clark County Education Association on Saturday ahead of the new school year.

In the statement, Ebert said the tentative agreement focuses on putting qualified educators in every classroom, maintaining the teachers’ pay scale and increasing the district’s contribution toward teacher health insurance.

“The Board of School Trustees and I feel incredibly proud about having a tentative negotiated agreement for our licensed educators before the school year starts,” Ebert wrote.

She added that the tentative agreement includes a new process to address salary concerns brought forth by veteran teachers.

“Prior negotiated agreements provided increased starting salaries for new teachers to address our teacher shortage. But we heard from our veteran teachers that these agreements did not adequately address their salaries. Therefore, CCSD and CCEA provided in this agreement a process to address that concern,” Ebert wrote.

The CCEA voted 97 percent to 3 percent to ratify the new contract, according to a post from the union on X.

John Vellardita, the union’s executive director, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that both parties approached negotiations aware of the district’s limited funding — partially caused by decreasing enrollments district-wide — and agreed to “put as much as we can in the classroom.”

He said part of this goal was achieved by making sure every classroom has a teacher.

“We have to make sure we get the proficiency levels up, and so you’re not going to do that if you don’t have a teacher in every classroom,” Vellardita said.

Vellardita said the tentative agreement maintains teachers’ current annual salary increases, which he said cost around $99.5 million per two-year agreement.

Because CCSD educators are paid on a salary schedule where pay depends on number of years of teaching experience and educational attainment, Vellardita said he believes keeping the existing structure will provide stability and help the district retain educators.

He added that the tentative agreement includes more protections for educators against “disruptive and threatening behavior on the part of students.”

The tentative agreement will be given to the Clark County School Board for approval on Thursday.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.