The Clark County (Nev.) School Board has approved a two-year contract for teachers in the nation's fifth-largest district.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the contract includes a 3 percent raise for nearly 19,000 teachers, step increases for each of the two years and a 4 percent increase in monthly health care contributions.
The contract approval ends a monthslong dispute that brought continual threats of a strike from the teachers union.
The Clark County Education Association last month set a tentative strike date of Sept. 10 if the two sides were unable to come to an agreement. Union members approved the contract this week in an online vote, Tbe Las Vegas Sun reports.
The Clark County district has 320,000 students.
Teachers also won a key point of contention: raises for educators who completed enough professional development activities to advance a column in the salary table, equating to an annual pay raise of more than $5,000.
The district, which held fast for months, announced last month that it had found enough money to cover those column advancements — previously estimated at $11 million to $15 million.
Officials say the amended contract is expected to cost the district an additional $124.5 million over the next two years.
Under the amended contract, the union and the district will form focus groups to work toward the establishment of a new professional development system to replace the column advancements after 2021.
