Gov. Steve Sisolak and legislative leadership met with Clark County Superintendent Jesus Jara and John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, Wednesday afternoon amid a contract dispute and looming threat of a teacher strike.

Sisolak, Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro called the meeting with a goal of urging them to “find solutions” to the disagreement, the governor’s office announced.

It’s unclear whether the parties came to any consensus.

“What was clear from the meeting is that everyone around the table shares the same goals to improve the state’s education system,” according to the statement. “The Governor and leadership are hopeful that those shared goals will help CCSD and CCEA find a resolution that doesn’t disrupt the instruction of more than 300,000 students, put teachers in the crosshairs of the dispute, and leave parents wondering how to make it work if a strike were to occur.”

CCEA rejected the school district’s contract offer last week and has announced a strike starting Sept. 10 if there’s no resolution. The school district announced Tuesday that it was preparing for a strike as the labor negotiations continued.

The school district’s offer — which it also extended to other employee groups — consisted of a 3 percent pay increase this year, step pay increases for eligible employees in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years and a 4 percent increase in the district’s contribution to the medical plan for those two years.

The teachers’ union, however, has said the offer comes up short because it doesn’t include pay increases tied to so-called column movement, which refers to completed professional development by licensed educators. Union officials say the absence of column movement pay deprives eligible educators of roughly $5,000 they were promised upon completion of the professional development.

The union also says the district hasn’t addressed a step freeze for the last school year or a reduction in teacher salaries related to a Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) increase of .625 percent.

The problem appears to be that money for the column movement wasn't factored into funding requests during the legislative session. Per an arbitrator's decision last year, the district was supposed to set aside money to pay the column movements.

Knowledgeable sources told The Nevada Independent that Sisolak urged Jara and Vellardita to work out the problem regarding column movement because, the governor insisted, a strike isn’t an option. Providing those pay increases likely would force the district to slash administrative costs, sources said.

Jara and Vellardita, who were expected to continue negotiating Wednesday, did not immediately return requests for comment.

CCEA has vowed to move forward with a strike if the school district doesn’t produce a new offer by Friday. The union also is planning a rally Thursday afternoon outside Liberty High School, where the school board is holding its regularly scheduled meeting that evening.

This is a developing story.