CCSD trustees agree to creation of new negotiator position
Clark County School District trustees agreed Thursday to the creation of a new position to handle negotiations with labor unions and advise the School Board on all legal matters.
Although trustees have discussed the need for such a position for months, the impetus for its creation comes after Edward Goldman, the chief negotiator and an associate superintendent resigned his duties as negotiator in late April. Goldman’s behavior is under an external investigation after a former employee alleged discrimination.
The new employee will make somewhere between $124,000 and $164,000, funded through budget cuts and trims within the central office, said Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky, who proposed the new position at a previous meeting.
“I will be blunt, this was my idea, and it was in response to the concerns of the board as to how we do certain pieces of negotiation,” he said.
Trustees reviewed a two-page job description during a meeting and made small tweaks — including adding that the employee would be responsible for negotiating contracts between any future superintendents — before directing Skorkowsky and staff to start the search process for an employee.
An internal team of employees would still be available to assist the negotiator, Skorkowsky said. The negotiator also would serve as the lawyer for the school district, leaving Carlos McDade to focus on running the district’s legal department on a day-to-day basis.
“I don’t know how you do the stuff that you do,” Trustee Linda Young told McDade.
Trustee Linda Cavazos said she wanted to be sure the new employee has experience working in schools and dealing with some of the technical aspects of education law. Trustee Chris Garvey said she was unsure how that would limit the applicant pool.
Skorkowsky recommending looking for “preferred experience” in education law, which was more strict than “knowledge” of school law but less limiting than requiring “experience,” he said.
There is no clear timeline for when the board might bring on the new employee.
Contact Meghin Delaney at 702-383-0281 or mdelaney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MeghinDelaney on Twitter.
Re-vote on Teach for America
After voting down a contract two weeks ago, trustees discussed a potential two-year contract with Teach for America on Thursday, voting to approve the contract this time with a four to three vote.
Trustee Linda Cavazos was the flip vote this week, after voting no on the contract two weeks ago.
The program recruits college graduates who didn’t study education into classrooms to help alleviate teacher shortages. Teach for America recruits and trains the candidates, who commit to working for two years in high-needs schools.
The teacher salaries are paid by the local districts, and Teach for America in Las Vegas typically gets a $2,000 stipend per teacher for each of the two years they are committed from districts to help defray costs of training and recruiting. Clark County has partnered with the program since 2004, renewing the contract every two years.
A renegotiated contract has the district paying $1,500 the first year and $2,500 the second year, in an effort to help the board feel more comfortable with the program.
