Thousands of teachers union members protested outside a Clark County School Board meeting Thursday, and administrators adjourned without considering all items on the agenda.
District trustees and administrators – including Superintendent Jesus Jara – walked out of the meeting room three times as members of the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) chanted phrases such as, “The Clark County School District (CCSD) is on fire. Jara is a liar.”
Contract negotiations have been underway since late March between the district and the union, prompting teacher protests and a district lawsuit seeking to prevent a possible future teacher strike.
After most of the meeting attendees left on Thursday, administrators voted on the agenda, listened to public comment and adjourned an hour and a half after it began.
CCEA members began protesting outside an hour before the meeting began at a district office on Flamingo Road. They gathered in the parking lot and on nearby sidewalks.
Greta Blunt Johnson, a special education English teacher at Canyon Springs High School, stood along Flamingo Road outside the district office.
“I never expected so many people,” he said of the protest. “It’s lovely”.
The union, which represents about 18,000 furloughed employees, originally estimated the number of attendees at about 2,000 but later said the number had risen to about 4,000.
The police did not allow anyone else to enter the building where the meeting was held after they said the room was at capacity.
Many protesters wore matching CCEA blue T-shirts and carried signs with messages like “Clark County Educators Demand a Contract Now!”
Some protesters brought their children. Others held homemade banners with messages like “Jara, can you see me?”, “licensed and leaving”, “you get what you pay for” and “teachers need to pay the bills too”.
District calls for ‘bad faith efforts’
Angie Joye, a second-grade teacher who chairs the union’s bargaining committee, said it’s sad to see the lies Jara put out in the media and that teachers can see through the small numbers the district is proposing.
The cost of living has risen and it is impossible for teachers to survive, said Joye, who has been teaching in the district for six years.
Jara and administrators received a raise, he said, asking how the district can take care of everyone else except the “foot soldiers” in classrooms.
Blunt Johnson said she believes in fighting for workers, noting the district’s proposal that was outlined in an email Wednesday to furloughed employees was not 100 percent fair.
She said it’s demeaning and disrespectful to teachers.
The district gave administrators a 10 percent raise for the first year of their contract, Blunt Johnson said, which is what the teachers union is asking for.
Teachers, he said, are “the backbone of the district.”
Blunt Johnson also said there are special education teachers who are upset by the district’s proposal to offer extra pay for certain special education teachers but not others, noting that “you can’t split the department.”
In a statement Thursday night after the meeting adjourned, the district wrote: “Everyone has the right to express themselves peacefully, but they do not have the right to block traffic, disrupt the business procedures of a public body, or impede the operations of the public agency through ‘work actions.’”
The district said union leadership has continued its “bad faith efforts to intimidate the school district into accepting its financially questionable proposals that would put the district’s finances in deficit.”
“As stewards of the public trust and dollars, we cannot agree to put the District in financial jeopardy that will ultimately hurt our students and adults,” he said.
The district said educators deserve a raise and an equitable pay scheme and will continue to advocate for them as talks continue.
“CCSD is willing to negotiate,” the district said. “CCEA should do its members’ business and join us at the table.”
The next bargaining sessions between the district and the teachers union are scheduled for August 17-18.
What the district proposes
The Clark County School District is proposing a pay increase for all furloughed employees, Jara said in an email Wednesday to employees.
The district is proposing a salary adjustment of nearly eight percent for furloughed employees this school year and one percent during the second year of the contract.
Jara wrote that she was sharing information about the district’s proposal, which was made on July 27, because “we feel it is important that you know – despite what you have been told – that the District is committed to your success and well-being and ensure that you receive truthful and objective information.
The union is asking for a 10 percent pay rise for the first year and 8 percent for the second. The district previously said that it cannot sustain that level of continuous increase.
The state Legislature appropriated more than $2 billion in additional funding for K-12 public education over two years and $250 million to school districts for employee raises.
Since the start of contract negotiations with CCEA, the district has “tried to correct” the salary schedule that was implemented in 2015, Jara wrote.
“CCEA has mischaracterized CCSD’s proposal to correct the salary schedule and has rejected our offer to allocate funds for this necessary correction in the next contract,” he wrote.
The district’s proposal also calls for teachers to have work days of up to seven hours and 30 minutes, 19 minutes longer than currently.
And it calls for raising starting teacher salaries to $52,556 this year and $53,082 next year. It is currently $50,115.
The district said it wants to allocate $45 million a year for the next two years to place employees on a new salary scheme.
An advancement column is also proposed for teachers who teach students with autism and self-contained classrooms – equivalent to $6,000 – and for hard-to-fill positions.
For health insurance, the district suggests increasing your contribution to THT Health by 10 percent this year and five percent next year.
In connection with Senate Bill 231 – the $250 million for school districts statewide for employee raises, the district said it has proposed entering into a memorandum of understanding to allocate 66 percent of its share of that money to furloughed employee raises.
The district said there will be an expiration date of June 30, 2025.
In her email Wednesday to employees, Jara wrote: “It has been a wonderful first few days of the school year. It was encouraging to see that despite the continued misinformation presented by CCEA leadership online and through the media, our educators are in the classroom with our students. Thank you for your continued commitment to our students and families.”
Inside the meeting room
At around 5:20 p.m. Thursday – about 20 minutes after the School Board meeting began – CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita announced to members inside that he had been told the board was in recess, saying no. I knew if the board members were coming back. Administrators returned to the room only after 5:30 p.m.
Some CCEA members chanted “shame” and “without a contract there is no peace.” Other members were telling their fellow educators to let the meeting continue.
Board president Evelyn Garcia Morales told union members that the board was “looking forward to hearing from you.”
CCEA vice president and high school teacher Jim Frazee stood up and yelled that thousands of his colleagues want to speak to the board members.
García Morales told Frazee that he has attended many meetings. Frazee responded by saying that he has been laughed at.
García Morales told the crowd that it was a business meeting. He kept talking, but his words were inaudible over the chanting.
A couple of other union members stood up and yelled at the board, including a woman who told the board that educators teach kids and “this is not a business meeting.”
García Morales asked him to take a seat, telling him that he would have to leave the meeting if he did not.
After about five minutes, the administrators again left the room. They returned just before 6 p.m.
Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales told the audience that she wanted to remind everyone that the Board was making an effort to listen to everyone.
He said they would have to start asking people to leave if they were disturbing. The chants continued and she struck the mallet.
The audience booed as the police approached the room. The police escorted a man out of the meeting.
The administrators left the room for the third time. The police began to walk around the room asking the attendees to leave and some did.
At around 6:15 pm, a union representative announced that the union leadership had ordered them to leave the room, but to continue protesting outside. A handful of people remained in the meeting room.
The administrators returned about five minutes later and said they were resuming the meeting.
Administrator Linda Cavazos, who was attending the meeting by phone, said she wanted to clarify whether everyone had been evicted from the room.
“There are people in this room,” García Morales said.
Nichole Beer, a district employee, said during the public comment period that she was concerned about the way access to the meeting room was being allowed.
She said it’s a “very bad look” when administrators and news reporters are allowed in, but teachers are not.
