Las Vegas teachers worried about paying back $1,000 to CCSD

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Multiple Clark County School District teachers have reached out to FOX5 saying they’re going to have to pay back $1,000 to the district after it erroneously sent them money meant for Title 1 staff. Schools that fall under the Title 1 have 60 percent of students considered at-risk or low-income, and as FOX5 reported in March, 47 CCSD schools were dropped from that classification.

“It’s causing me severe anxiety,” one educator who spoke to FOX5 on the condition of anonymity said about the prospect of having to pay that money back. “That night I got paid, I started paying bills. I’m trying to get out of debt.”

That teacher says the deposit came in Wednesday and it wasn’t until Friday morning that CCSD told her it was a mistake.

“It’s really unfortunate if somebody took that money, used it for something they needed, and now they have to suddenly pay it back,” Vicki Kreidel, President of the National Education Association of Southern Nevada told FOX5 Friday. “That’s really difficult.”

Kreidel and John Vellardita, who lead the two largest education unions in Southern Nevada, both say the district will ask the teachers to pay that money back.

In anticipation of this, Vellardita is taking action.

“We have filed a complaint against what the school district has done,” Vellardita, who heads up the Clark County Education Association, explained. “Because under labor law, it’s inappropriate for them to do what they’re going to do.”

Vellardita says no teacher should have to pay back any of that $1,000.

“We’re going to make sure that no educator has any harm come to them as part of the negligence on the part of the school district,” he said.

That would come as a small miracle for the teacher who spoke with FOX5, since she’s now not sure what to do after paying down her debts.

“This thousand dollars, I don’t know where it’s going to come from,” she said. “I’m literally stressing out about it.”

FOX5 reached out to CCSD several times Friday to confirm how many of those deposits were sent out and if the district will ask for them back. A district spokesperson said they would get back with a comment, but as of late Friday night, FOX5 has not received one back.

“It’s just another example of the dysfunction that we deal with on a regular basis,” Kreidel said of the district’s apparent fumbling of the payments.

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