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Clark County School Board to consider reduced terms for Jara resignation

The new terms would roughly halve Jara’s proposed severance pay, amid mounting controversies for the state’s largest school district.
Jacob Solis
Jacob Solis
K-12 Education
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The Clark County School Board will consider reduced resignation terms for embattled Superintendent Jesus Jara next week, new meeting documents show — a move that comes just a week after the board rejected Jara’s initial resignation offer that would have included a roughly $500,000 severance package. 

The new terms would give Jara the equivalent of six months of pay — about $250,000 — and exclude any payouts for unused sick leave and vacation time roughly worth an additional $100,000. Jara’s initial resignation request had sought a full year of pay, plus the unused sick leave, as per the terms of his existing contract that guaranteed pay and benefits so long as Jara gave a 90-day notice. 

Trustees will consider the new terms at their meeting on Feb. 22. If approved, Jara’s resignation would be effective one day later. 

In a statement attached to the agenda item, the board called the separation a “mutual agreement” and said “taking advantage of this natural transition point is in everyone’s best interest.” 

“We appreciate the Superintendent’s willingness to help us move forward in a positive manner,” the statement said. 

The board narrowly rejected the original terms in a 4-3 vote last week, amid a public outcry and accusations that the payout amounted to a golden parachute for the embattled superintendent, who has led the state’s largest school district since 2018. 

Those criticisms came on the back of mounting controversies for the Clark County School District and Jara himself. That includes the use of federal pandemic aid for teacher recruitment trips to vacation destinations, as well as a lawsuit from the state’s largest teachers union alleging Jara was behind posts that disparaged top union officials on X, formerly Twitter.

At a Feb. 7 board meeting, Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales told the public that the board became increasingly concerned over public “vitriol and disrespect” for Jara, and proposed a mutual separation. 

New meeting documents also suggest the board will pursue either the appointment of CCSD Deputy Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell or Chief Financial Officer Jason Goudie as an interim superintendent. An agenda item appointing Larsen-Mitchell as a replacement for Jara — notably without an interim title — was tabled after Jara’s initial resignation terms were scuttled.

Correction: Feb. 16 at 2:30 p.m. — An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the resignation agreement as $200,000, instead of $250,000.

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