LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The Clark County School District will again consider paying millions of dollars to settle a lawsuit, amid a budget crisis that it has previously cited was partly caused by legal payouts.
According to CCSD’s board of trustees agenda, the school board will vote on Thursday, Oct. 10 on whether to pay $3.5 million to three victims of Jonathan Cronin.
He taught at Sierra Vista High School up until his arrest in 2019 and was accused of inappropriately touching multiple students. He was picked up during a months-long sting with 20 different law enforcement agencies called Operation Silver Star.
It won’t be the first multi-million dollar CCSD has settled this year.
In June and July of 2024, there were two separate lawsuits it settled in sum for nearly $12 million.
Other big payouts include awarding $9 million in 2022 and 2023 for victims of Michael Banco, who was a school bus driver convicted of abusing students.
The topic of settlements came up at Wednesday’s Nevada Board of Education meeting. The reason? CCSD previously stated it’s in a budget crisis due to not taking into account teacher raises, cybersecurity expenses and lawsuit payouts.
“If you lose lawsuits, there should be a fund to cover, especially because unfortunately school districts frequently lose lawsuits, right? There should be kind of a reserve for that,” Felicia Ortiz president of the Nevad Board of Education said.
“As I understand, they had a reserve but they went $23 million over,” Rene Cantu a member of the Nevada State Board pf Education said.
Nor Cantu or Ortiz said how much was in the reserve before it went over.
The district was also sued again last week by parents alleging “system failures” in its special education program.
CCSD has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
