The battle continues between the Clark County School District (CCSD) and the union over superintendent Jesus Jara’s decision to eliminate 170 dean of student positions.

While we don’t know the future of those positions, the fight is more about how much power the district and the superintendent really have.

After weeks of back-and-forth, the court could decide today if Jara had the right to cut 170 dean positions for this upcoming school year.

It’s a battle that started in early June, when the Clark County Association of School Administrators accused the school board of violating Nevada’s open meeting law by voting behind closed doors to eliminate the dean positions.

But the board claims Jara has the authority to hire, fire, re-assign employees, and control the school budget as he sees fit. The superintendent also argues that the decision to eliminate deans was necessary to close a $17 million deficit.

“I made a calculated decision and obviously it didn’t go as planned so to you all here – everyone here I’m sorry, and to everyone in this community,” said Jara.

His decision caused backlash from parents, educators, and other school administrators in several open forums.

“It’s the deans! And you’re going to take that away? How dare you!” said one angry protestor of Jara’s decision. “How dare you. Everybody who voted for this should be ashamed. Shame on you.”

Not long after the backlash, the administrator’s union filed their complaint against the school board, which resulted in a judge temporarily stopping the district from eliminating the 170 dean positions last week.

The district has remained confident in their decision to cut the positions and that the closed-door meeting was exempt from the law because it was based on labor negotiations.

Today’s meeting will take place via telephone conference this afternoon.

The union said they don’t believe Jara is that powerful, but regardless, the judge will be making that final decision at 1:15 PM.