2012 PRIMARY ELECTION: CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT A

In a school year dominated by contention between the Clark County School District and its teachers union, a past union president is running for election against a sitting School Board member.

Also in the race for the District A seat is a third candidate without experience in governing education, but with a wealth of business acumen, which is what the district needs to wade through the deficit causing its labor strife, he argues.

The recently resolved conflict over whether to freeze teacher salaries or undergo layoffs probably will stand front and center in the race for District A, which includes Henderson and part of southeast Las Vegas, on the Clark County School Board.

Last summer, Wright and the six other board members asked all four employee labor unions to take a pay freeze to help the district balance its budget. Without that concession, positions would have to be cut. All but the teachers union, the Clark County Education Association, accepted. Union officials said the district is sitting on the money it needs to fund teacher raises in 2011-12.

Candidate and 2001-08 teachers union President Mary Ella Holloway argues the district should keep paying teachers their raises. She was a teacher for 38 years.

"It's a question of the district deciding its priorities," she said.

Past contracts gave raises for seniority, and teachers have to pay out of their pockets to earn continuing education credits, she added. "The school district needs to stand by its contract."

Candidate Kevinn Donovan, who is director of development contracts for Las Vegas Sands Corp., also said the district could have and should have found a way to continue teacher raises, noting that $39 million for 2011-12 pay raises is just under 2 percent of the district's annual $2 billion budget.

But he finds both sides at fault for not "sitting down like grown-ups and figuring things out," he said. He writes contracts for a living for projects ranging from $1 million to $4 billion, and contracts can't cover every detail. That's where parties have to work together, which wasn't done here, he said.

"The only winners will be lawyers," he said. "And the kids will lose."

Incumbent Deanna Wright, elected in 2008, stands by the district's position that all 37,000 employees need to take a pay freeze. The 18,000 teachers can't be given special treatment, she said.

"Other unions took the pay freeze," she said, emphasizing that she is not against giving raises to teachers. "If we had the money, I'd be for teacher raises. But it's not there."

Wright is running for re-election to see through the wave of reforms begun in her term. The district has been a key player in the state's efforts to do away with No Child Left Behind and start its own system of holding schools accountable for student performance. The new system would rely on the Nevada Growth Model, which tracks student growth, not just whether they test at grade level in core subjects.

"I want to see that through," she said.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.