2023-08-11 07:00:00
Alisha Fletcher, a health teacher at Sunrise Mountain High School, protests with other members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union in front of CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023 , In Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside the CCSD Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. CCEA said at least four thousand protesters lined Flamingo Road. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside the CCSD Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. CCEA said at least four thousand protesters lined Flamingo Road. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Patricia Glover, a third-grade teacher at Kathy L. Batterman Elementary School, protests outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10 2023, in Las Vegas. Glover joined other members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union in calling for a contract that reflects her demands for pay increases. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Clark County School District Board trustees Irene Bustamante Adams, left, Evelyn Garcia Morales, Lola Brooks and Brenda Zamora react as members of the Association of Teachers Union Clark County Education chant their demands during a school board meeting at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. The board finally adjourned following cleaning the teachers union members’ room. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara, center, reacts as members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union chant their demands during a board meeting school meeting at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, August 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. The board finally adjourned following cleaning the teachers union members’ room. (Ellen Schmidt / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Ernest A. Becker Middle School teacher Aramis Bacallao yells as he is expelled from a school board meeting at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, August 10, 2023 , In Las Vegas. The board finally adjourned following cleaning the teachers union members’ room. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt A police officer escorts Aramis Bacallao, a teacher at Ernest A. Becker Middle School, from a school board meeting at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, August 10 2023, in Las Vegas. The board finally adjourned following cleaning the teachers union members’ room. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara is the first to leave the room following the school board adjourned at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, August 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. The CCSD Board of Trustees voted to suspend the meeting due to protesters from the Clark County Education Association. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Thousands of members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023 , In Las Vegas. Union members demanded a contract that reflects their salary increase requirements. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Thousands of members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023 , In Las Vegas. Union members demanded a contract that reflects their salary increase requirements. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Students join members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union in a protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Conni Dunham, a member of the Clark County Education Association teachers union and a teacher at Walter V. Long Elementary School, protests outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a meeting of the school board on Thursday, August 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Clark County Education Association teachers union member Nancy Valdez, first grade teacher at Sunrise Acres Elementary School protests with thousands of fellow union members outside Greer Education CCSD Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union protest outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt CCSD students Preston Hensley, 10, left, and Lynkin Smith, nine, protest with their parents, who are members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union, outside CCSD’s Greer Education Center before a school board meeting on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt Members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union chant for the CCSD Board of Trustees to end its recess from a school board meeting at the Greer Education Center in CCSD on Thursday, August 10, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt A police officer asks members of the Clark County Education Association teachers union to leave a school board meeting at CCSD’s Greer Education Center on Thursday, the 10th. August 2023, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt
Thousands of teachers union members protested outside a Clark County School Board meeting Thursday, and administrators adjourned the session without considering all agenda items.
Trustees and district administrators – including Superintendent Jesús Jara – left 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, sparking teacher protests and a lawsuit by the district seeking to prevent a possible future teachers’ strike.
After most meeting attendees left Thursday, trustees voted on the agenda, listened to public comments and adjourned the session an hour and a half following 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 regarding 18,000 furloughed employees, initially estimated the number of attendees at regarding 2,000, but later said the number had risen to regarding 4,000.
Police did not allow anyone else into the building where the meeting was held following they said the room was at capacity.
Many protesters wore blue CCEA T-shirts and carried signs with messages such as “Clark County Educators Demand a Contract Now!”
Some protesters brought their children. Others held homemade signs with messages such as “Jara can you see me?”, “on leave and leaving,” “you get what you pay for,” and “teachers need to pay the bills too.”
District calls ‘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 increased 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 the 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 wasn’t 100 percent fair.
She said it’s degrading and disrespectful to teachers.
The district gave administrators a 10 percent raise during 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 regarding the district’s proposal to offer extra pay for certain special education teachers but not others, noting that “you can’t break up the department.”
In a statement Thursday night following the meeting adjourned, the district wrote: “Everyone has the right to peaceful expression, but they do not have the right to block traffic, disrupt the business procedures of a public body, or impede public agency operations through ‘work actions.’”
The district said the 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 harm 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 conversations 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 he was sharing information regarding the district’s proposal, which was made on July 27, because “we believe it is important for you to 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 wage increase in the first year and eight percent in the second. The district previously said it cannot sustain that level of continued increase.
The state Legislature allocated 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 “attempted 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 includes teachers having work days of up to seven hours and 30 minutes, 19 minutes longer than currently.
And it calls for increasing the starting salary of teachers to $52,556 this year and $53,082 next year. It is currently $50,115.
The district said it wants to allocate $45 million annually over the next two years to place employees in a new pay scheme.
An advancement column is also proposed for teachers who teach students with autism and self-contained classrooms – which is equivalent to six thousand dollars – and for difficult-to-fill positions.
For health insurance, the district suggests increasing its contribution to THT Health by 10 percent this year and five percent next year.
Regarding Senate Bill 231 – the $250 million for school districts across the state for employee raises – the district said it has proposed entering into a memorandum of agreement to allocate 66 percent of its share of that money to raises for furloughed employees.
The district said there will be an expiration date of June 30, 2025.
In his 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 on the internet 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
Around 5:20 p.m. on Thursday – regarding 20 minutes following the School Board meeting began – CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita announced to members inside that he had been told the board was on recess, saying no. I didn’t know if the board members were coming back. Administrators returned to the room only following 5:30 p.m.
Some CCEA members chanted “shame” and “no contract, no peace.” Other members told their fellow educators to let the meeting continue.
Board President Evelyn García 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 shouted that thousands of his colleagues want to speak to board members.
García Morales told Frazee that he has attended many meetings. Frazee responded by saying he’s been laughed at.
García Morales told the crowd that it was a business meeting. He continued speaking, 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 children 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 regarding five minutes, the administrators left the room once more. They returned just before 6 p.m.
Board President Evelyn García 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 disruptive. The chanting continued and she banged the gavel.
The audience booed as the police approached the room. Police escorted a man from the meeting.
The administrators left the room for the third time. The police began to walk around the room asking 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 regarding 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 evacuated 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 regarding 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.
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