Nevada Assembly Speaker calls for CCSD superintendent’s resignation, Jara says ‘no’

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D) called for Dr. Jesus Jara to resign his position as Superintendent of the Clark County School District Wednesday.

Dr. Jara quickly responded to say he would not.

“Unfortunately, community leaders, parents, teachers, and students no longer trust that Dr. Jara can get CCSD back on track,” Yeager said. “We must fight for our students, who are the future of this great state. They deserve our best efforts.”

This comes as a pay dispute between CCSD and the Clark County Education Association, the union representing CCSD teachers, heads to an arbitration.

According to a release from the Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus, Dr. Jara was “unable to provide” a plan to improve education, teacher recruitment and retention, and boost morale within CCSD to the legislature at the most recent legislative session.

Nevada Democrats said they were hopeful the school district would “make some progress” after the legislature invested “record revenues into the education budget,” according to the release.

The release also stated that the legislature “allocated funding for teacher pay raises, passed a teacher pipeline bill to address vacancies in the classroom, and passed governance changes.”

“Dr. Jara has squandered this opportunity, further antagonized the public, and completely lost the trust of the public in Clark County,” the release said.

“This moment in time cries out for a change in leadership to restore trust in CCSD and bring new and fresh ideas to public education in Southern Nevada. Nevadans deserve nothing less and should settle for nothing less,” Yeager said in an X post.

Jara has served as the leader of the school district since 2018. Previously, he was deputy superintendent for Orange County Public Schools in Florida for six years.

According to a statement from the school district, Dr. Jara will remain in his position as superintendent “as long as the Board of Trustees desires him to do so.”

“No bullying, pressure, harassment, or coordination with the leadership of the CCEA will deter him from his job to educate our 300,000 students and protect taxpayer resources from those who wish to harm the District or its finances,” the statement read. “Since Speaker Yeager has Superintendent Jara’s phone number, he could have inquired as to the status of any of the issues he raises.”