Teachers union says CCSD suit to prevent strike is premature

The Clark County Education Association held a news conference Tuesday reacting to a school district lawsuit that seeks to halt a future teacher strike.

CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita told reporters at the teachers union’s Las Vegas office that he believes what the district filed in court is premature and driven by fear, as well as a superintendent who’s mismanaging the situation.

What’s upsetting about the district’s recent activities is that they’re trying to take away educators’ rights, CCEA President Marie Neisess said, calling it unacceptable.

“Our educators are fired up and they’re angry,” she said. “They want to shut down their voices and our voices will not be silenced. We’ve had enough.”

On Monday, the Clark County School District — which is expecting more than 294,000 students to return to classes Monday — announced it filed a lawsuit against the teachers union.

The lawsuit in Clark County District Court aims to prevent the union from striking in violation of state law, according to court documents.

The lawsuit cites comments that union officials have made, including after a member meeting over the weekend where the union — which represents about 18,000 licensed employees — said it would consider “work actions” if a collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached by Aug. 26.

The district also filed a petition Monday with the state’s Employee-Management Relations Board asking for permission to withdraw the union as the bargaining agent representing the district’s licensed employees.

Since mid-July, the union’s comments “demonstrate a flagrant disregard” of the state’s prohibition on strikes, the district wrote in the petition.

Under state law, public employees aren’t allowed to strike. That includes public school employees.

The union is currently under contract with the district, even though the negotiated agreement expired at the end of June, Vellardita said, and it includes a no-strike provision.

The district didn’t respond to a request for comment by Monday afternoon about CCEA’s news conference.

‘Work actions’ union could take

More than 3,000 educators attended Saturday’s member meeting and voted on next steps regarding negotiations.

“I can tell you that these teachers were very angry,” Vellardita said Tuesday, and are upset by a lack of progress during negotiations.

During the meeting, the union shared an update on negotiations and that the district is “clearly far apart from us,” Vellardita said.

But there’s some recognition on the district’s part on some of the issues that were “near and dear to us,” he said.

The will of CCEA’s members is to see if a new agreement results from two upcoming negotiation sessions Aug. 17 and 18, Vellardita said.

Another member meeting Aug. 26 will be either used to ratify a contract, if one has been agreed upon, or to decide on a course of action that could include “work actions,” he said.

No decision has been made about what “work actions” could entail, he said, but noted it could include teachers not working longer than their contracted day of 7 hours, 11 minutes.

“That’s going to come to an end if there’s no contract,” he said.

That would affect before- and after-school activities, and lesson planning, Vellardita said.

‘Pattern of abuse’

After the news conference, CCEA member Jeremy Christensen — a math teacher at Arbor View High School — said he spent all day Monday working in his classroom preparing for the new school year.

He wasn’t getting paid for his time because returning teachers don’t officially report back until Wednesday.

Christensen — who has taught in the district for about 20 years — said he saw an email from Superintendent Jesus Jara to school employees around 6 p.m. Monday talking about student well-being, but didn’t take employees into account.

The Review-Journal requested a copy of the email from the district, but hadn’t received it by Monday afternoon.

Christensen said if he worked only his contracted hours, it would mean not going to his students’ football games or plays, or tutoring after school.

That, he said, would be difficult for him and would also hurt students.

The current district leadership also has a history of spending money on anything but teachers, Christensen said, pointing to examples such as a contract with virtual tutoring company Paper.

Tension between the district, union

In recent months, the union has publicly called for Jara’s resignation and protested outside “Java with Jara” community events.

The district is currently negotiating with three of its five employee unions, including CCEA.

The teachers union’s demands include a pay raise for all educators — 10 percent for the first year and 8 percent in the second — while the district said it wants a new salary schedule.

The union also wants pay increases specifically for special education teachers and educators at Title 1 schools.

The state Legislature appropriated $250 million for school districts for employee raises over the next two years, in addition to more than $2 billion in new K-12 education funding.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.