Former superintendent of the Clark County School District (CCSD), Dr. Jesus Jara submitted his letter of resignation on Jan. 30 and could have received $395,000 in accordance with the Second Amendment in the Employment Agreement. In a 5-2 decision, Jara’s resignation was accepted on Feb. 22, with a severance package of $250,000.
“There were leaders within our state legislator and kind of public figures that were openly calling for the superintendent’s resignation,” Social Studies Department Chair Joseph Juliano said. “I think a lot of those calls stem from the idea that people really felt like maybe he had lost the ability to lead CCSD. People have kind of lost faith in him as a leader.”
With 20 years of experience in the educational system, Jara was previously a deputy superintendent for Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida. With his assistance, the achievement gap in Orlando narrowed faster than 90 percent of major cities across the United States.
“I mean, our district is so big, we’re the fifth largest district in the country, so I think a lot of times teachers, very much feel the leadership within their own school more than the superintendent because he’s one person in such a massive district,” Juliano said. “For example, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to him [Jara] before. When you have a leader that’s in such a big organization that most of the teachers never even interacted with him personally there’s that feeling that he doesn’t understand what teachers do on a day to day basis.”
Within Jara’s term, he was fired, rehired, experienced criticism with funding decisions,and faced teacher contract negotiation disagreements with the Clark County Education Association (CCEA). He also had goals of being the “most improved district in America,” with expectations of three stars and higher schools, a 90 percent graduation rate, and a 100 percent increase in college and career-ready diplomas. In 2023, the graduation rate was up to 81.5 percent, and awarded 5960 college and career-ready diplomas, which has increased since 2019’s rate of 4194.
“We [teachers] need someone that we feel is more connected to what we do and what we go through and we have faith in to make decisions that are in the interest of individual teachers as opposed to just like what the bottom line numbers are for the district which is also important, but I think when you have a leader, you have to start from the ground up,” Juliano said. “And I think a lot of people felt that Jara was kind of in his own world a little when it came to his priorities versus what the teachers were kind of expecting from a leader.”
CCEA had taken legal action against Jara for allegedly using a burner account to berate criticism against him on X, formerly known as Twitter. CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita and President Marie Neisess suggested in a press conference that Jara’s timing on resignation was intentional as it was around a deadline in a lawsuit filed against the district for the release of information related to Jara’s social media accounts.
“I feel like his resignation could completely depend on the person who takes his place,” senior Hunter Anderson said. “The person who is taking over for him could have different desires than Jara initially had and that can be positive or negative depending on what they want to do. If they want to be more oriented around the staff and those who work there, that could negatively affect me because they don’t focus on students.”
In the same school board meeting that accepted Jara’s resignation, the board voted on who should temporarily take Jara’s place. Typically, a nationwide job search is conducted to find a superintendent; the board will decide in their March meeting on what criteria to implement in a national search and if they want to pursue this hiring method. Previous deputy superintendent for CCSD, Dr. Brenda Larsen-Mitchell took on the role of interim superintendent.
“As the fifth largest district, it’s a big position in education in the country,” Juliano said. “Usually, they’ll do a nationwide job search, and they’ll really try to feel like the best candidates from everywhere and try to go through a pretty systematic interview process with several candidates see who really rises to the top in terms of like, leadership abilities to not only run an organization but to motivate people and I think that that takes a while.”
There are several changes CCEA plans on introducing at the next legislative session. Two of the seven that Vellardita listed include implementing standards for individuals to be a school superintendent and more instructional time within the classroom.
“It’s really important moving forward that we have a great process to hire the next superintendent that involves input from parents and from students and from staff,” Computer Science teacher Dana Cuni said. “We really need to focus on those graduation rates and those proficiency scores and making sure that we are getting equitable education to most of the students in the district and we need to do better than we’ve been doing.”
Nevada is ranked 35 in the United States for academic achievement. As one of the largest districts in the country, CCSD must make adjustments to alter this statistic.
“Fortunately, we’re at a really great school where we can see the achievements students are making,” Cuni said. “Our test scores are high, our graduation [rate] is high. But that’s not consistent throughout the district, especially if we focus on places like North Las Vegas. Their graduation rate is miserably low and their scores are significantly lower than they were before Jara started. Obviously, we had issues with COVID, but it’s time to stop using that as an excuse. We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help those students who aren’t seeing the improvements like we are here.”
