Memo: NSEA Supports SB148 As Amended

Education support professionals are the backbone of CCSD, keeping schools running while ensuring students are safe, healthy, and ready to learn. While critical to the operations of schools, education support professionals tend to be at the bottom of district pay scales, with some ESPs making as little as $12/hour and an overwhelming majority making less than a living wage. Last year, over 1600 CCSD workers, mostly ESPs, were enrolled on Medicaid. Education support professionals reflect the Nevada communities they serve, and a majority are people of color.

The reorganization of the Clark County School District aimed to decentralize decision-making, giving local school precincts more autonomy over school budgets and operations. However, this overhaul came with unintended consequences that negatively impacted many education support professionals. This decentralization created perverse incentives for local school precincts to consider outsourcing and understaffing positions critical to health and safety. SB148 addresses this by setting minimum staffing ratios for custodial and campus security employees. Similar to SB251, language in SB148 affirms language in collective bargaining agreements regarding the selection of staff in the employee surplus process.

For too long, education support professionals have felt relegated among school employees. The CCSD reorganization has made this worse. SB148 is a big step toward giving ESPs the respect they deserve.