School district finalizes agreed-to police pay freeze

It’s official. School police’s salaries will be frozen from this school year through 2012-13, saving a cash-poor Clark County School District $872,000 in combination with other concessions.

School Board members, who unanimously approved the police contract on Wednesday, praised the union for sacrificing raises to save jobs.

“It is very important to this board to keep our employees employed,” board member Deanna Wright said.

Members of the union, the Police Officer’s Association , voted to accept the contract on March 10.

That is three employee contracts down and one to go — the largest one for the school system.

The district, one of the state’s largest employers, has asked its 37,000 workers to take a pay freeze and pay half of the 2.25 percent increase in rates to the state’s public employees retirement plan.

With the exception of the teachers union, bargaining groups for administrators, support staff and 160 police officers have agreed. Teachers, the most vital group in saving the district millions of dollars, account for nearly 18,000 employees, outnumbering administrators, police and support staff combined.

The most current savings estimate is $63.9 million if teachers take a retroactive pay freeze this year and continue to do so through 2012-13, which would prevent 1,000 teacher layoffs.

“I commend the Police Officer’s Association for being a partner while we all manage the constraints of a struggling economy,” Superintendent Dwight Jones said.

Though the police agreed to a pay freeze for this year and next year in a 63-29 vote, officers won’t have to pay back the raises they received this year. Like the Education Support Employees Association, the police union has money saved in a reserve account to give to the district to fund the $94,500 in raises.

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