$9K to $90K: School board members’ salaries would increase nearly 10x under new bill

Clark County School Board trustees would see their compensation increase from $9,000 to nearly $90,000 a year if a bill before the Nevada Legislature becomes law.

Assembly Bill 156, first presented to the Assembly Committee on Education on Thursday, would increase the current trustee salary of $750 a month to that of a Clark County commissioner, who on average are paid $88,106 annually.

Supporters hope the revamped trustee pay would lead to stronger oversight of the Clark County School District and its $4 billion budget.

The bill would also grant the four appointed trustees voting rights, but would maintain their current pay of $750 per month. As it stands now, the board is composed of seven elected members and four unelected members who are appointed by local municipalities. The four appointed members have no voting power when it comes to board matters.

The proposed legislation is sponsored by Assembly member Erica Mosca, D-Las Vegas, and has been championed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. Both hope a School Board made up of full-time, adequately compensated trustees would help foster stronger trust in the community.

“This is an important bill to me because I believe we should support those who are entrusted with making policy decisions for our children, families and community members,” Mosca wrote in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “A $4B budget is managed by essentially volunteers — I believe we can do better by supporting them to have the capacity to approach the role as a full-time job.”

What supporters, opponents are saying

Several supporters on Thursday echoed the sentiment that a full-time board would better serve students, and that nonvoting members provide the board with necessary expertise and should be able to vote. Some opponents objected only to the portion of the bill that would grant appointed members the ability to vote, while others thought the proposed higher salaries would be financially irresponsible.

The $750 per month that School Board trustees earn now makes it a part-time job, and means that most of the School Board members need to work at other jobs in addition to the hours they spend as a trustee.

As a result, ACLU Nevada Director Athar Haseebullah said it can be difficult to recruit people for the job.

“It’s basically a thankless task where you’re bombarded by the public at every meeting and asked to fix things and you’re doing so while sacrificing your personal time, the time you have with your family, and then expected to deliver a maximum product while being provided minimum tools to do that with,” Haseebullah told the Assembly on Thursday.

Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen, R-Sparks, said that while she agreed with holding trustees to a high standard of governance, she was not convinced that it was connected to compensation.

Part-time oversight leads to full-time problems, ACLU says

It would fall on the school district to pay these new salaries, and the bill clarifies that the district cannot make staff compensation cuts or furloughs to pay for it.

But Haseebullah argued that because increasing the salary would increase accountability, it would save the school district money in the long term. With better oversight, he said, the school district could pay less in lawsuits and better review its budget.

“When you have part-time oversight, you have full-time problems,” Haseebullah said.

Because trustees’ terms are staggered, the bill means that different trustees will begin receiving compensation at various times, with it first going into effect for the trustees with elections in the 2026 election cycle.

Although the bill would only change the pay structure for the Clark County School Board, it would allow smaller school districts in Nevada to increase the pay for their trustees as well if they were to choose to do so.

“This is my idea of trying to go big so that we can really change some of the ways that we think about education and we support those who are supporting our students and our families and our educators,” Mosca said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.