700-plus CCSD employees have remote work requests denied

Some 3,000 educators reported for in-person instruction for preschool to third graders beginning last week, while 1,500 others remained at home to teach students who opted for distance learning, Superintendent Jesus Jara said at March 1 news conference.

District representatives said Friday that 711 requests to work remotely had been denied, with “more than half” of those from licensed employees who provide student support, such as speech and language therapists, physical therapists and school psychologists.

Tracy Leonard, a specialist at Sandy Valley Elementary School, said her request to continue working remotely was denied despite her medical history of asthma that has required emergency resuscitation. Should she have an attack in the classroom, Leonard said, she fears medical services would not reach her in time in the rural school.

‘On unpaid leave or fired’

She said she asked to teach remotely as soon as she found out the option was available, but received a denial from school officials. As a specialist teacher, she’s asked to help supervise classrooms to allow other teachers to take their preparation time under the schedule outlined in the district’s hybrid reopening plan.

The rub, Leonard says, came when she logged in to check on a group of her students working on a project and found that a substitute was teaching them virtually.

Leonard said she has around 13 more days of sick leave to use and has contacted the teachers union for help.

“After that, I’ll either be out on unpaid leave or fired,” she said.

A district survey of employees serving preschool to third grade in late January drew 9,713 responses from teachers and support staffers and showed a 60-40 split in favor of returning to classrooms. The district has not provided a breakdown of responses by employee role.

Across all grades, the district has around 18,000 teachers, 12,000 support staff, 4,000 substitute teachers and 1,300 administrators, as well as 5,000 employees classified as “substitute or temporary.”

According to John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, the teachers union has helped schools process around 1,300 requests from preschool to third grade teachers to continue working from home teaching the 50,000 young students who have opted to continue with distance learning instead of returning to the classroom.

A solution has been found in all the cases the union is aware of, he said. Among them: Securing a substitute until a teacher could receive both vaccination doses; offering additional personal protective equipment like plexiglass desk dividers; and reassigning caseloads to lessen exposure risks.

The union’s memorandum of agreement with the school district outlines that telecommuting requests are subject to the number of students returning to each school.

‘Not a guaranteed accommodation’

Teachers can also make requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act process, the agreement states, “but telecommuting is not a guaranteed accommodation.”

There’s also priority for teachers who are members of a vulnerable population as defined by state emergency orders — such as those who have chronic lung disease, severe heart conditions or moderate to severe asthma — as well as those who have family members who are in at-risk groups, Vellardita said.

The first step in staffing buildings was to seek volunteers, he said. Some principals have also found the need for in-person teachers growing as families change their minds about in-person or virtual instruction.

With more denials expected as in-person learning expands to more students, Vellardita said, teachers should reach out to the union if they encounter issues.

“The recourse is to contact us. We’ll try to work through it,” he said.

Tracy Sbraccia, a second grade teacher at Taylor Elementary School in Henderson, said she was still fighting lingering symptoms after a bout of COVID-19 and didn’t feel ready to return to the classroom when teachers were instructed to report back on Feb. 22.

But since most other teachers at her school agreed to teach all three cohorts of their students — two in-person groups and their remote classmates — she said she was told she’d have to come in to do the same.

She’s now using sick days but says she won’t have enough to last the rest of the year. She also asked if she can still teach her class during the all-distance days on Wednesdays.

She added that she hopes to feel well enough to get vaccinated before returning to her class, or to find a solution with the district that would allow her to exclusively teach the roughly 50 online-only students at her grade-level.

“There are kids who need online teachers,” she said. “How do you do an effective job teaching both in-person and online?”

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.