Nevada’s Clark County School District averted a teacher’s strike this week after district officials and a local teachers’ union reached a tentative deal.
The union, Clark County Education Association, announced the agreement Wednesday, which includes a 3 percent salary raise, a step increase each year and a 4 percent increase in CCSD’s health insurance premiums per month.
{mosads}“Thank you to all the member leaders who led this fight to resolve our contract favorable to all educators. Thank you to all educators who participated in this struggle. Your fortitude and unity paid off,” the CCEA said in a statement.
District Superintendent Jesus Jara called the agreement “a fair deal for our educators who have the largest impact on student achievement,” according to Education Week.
Jara had previously argued the district could not afford the $11 million to $15 million that would be necessary to give raises for professional development, leading to threats of a teachers strike. The district had previously offered a one-time payment for such raises, but the union declined, according to Education Week.
Jara said Wednesday that hiring freezes and interest earnings meant the district is “trending positively in our revenue.”
Before a deal was reached, several students in the district had used the video-sharing platform TikTok to organize a student walkout in solidarity with their teachers, who said they would avert a strike in the wake of the resolution.
“This raise issue isn’t just about money — it’s driving teachers’ passion out,” Gillian Sullivan, 16, who posted the initial video, told BuzzFeed News. “When teachers aren’t passionate, it really affects the students. When teachers don’t care about they’re teaching, students don’t care about what they’re learning.”