LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Negotiations over a new contract for Clark County School District teachers lasted for months.
There was frustration and protest. The Clark County Education Association says the process was just too long and came with a cost.
“One of the biggest things that we always hear is the concern about what will happen to students during this process,” said CCEA President Marie Neisess. “If you look across the country where we’ve had other large urban school districts go on strike, we’ll use LA Unified for instance. It took three days, and then they settled a contract. Our process began in March. And by December over 400 educators had left CCSD.”
CCEA held a Thursday news conference and said it has filed a petition for a public vote across Nevada on whether teachers should be allowed to strike. The group says over the last ten years it has gone to arbitration four times. It says the current binding arbitration system is from the 1960′s and is no longer working for educators or students in Nevada.
“We’re looking for resolutions. This isn’t a quick fix to say oh, we’re immediately going to call for a strike. We don’t want to do that. We want to be able to change this process. Because, clearly, binding arbitration does not work and having our educators as well as our students and community wait months on end for things to be settled is not acceptable,” said Neisess.
CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara responded to today’s move by CCEA with a statement to FOX5.
“CCEA missed an opportunity to equitably compensate our veteran teachers with the lookback we proposed. For the sake of the community, CCEA’s time, energy, and member dues can best be deployed on behalf of our educators, who show up daily for students. The law they seek to overturn exists to prevent community chaos and its adverse impacts on our economies and families. We need more transparency, not chaos, in public sector negotiations. Transparent public sector negotiations would benefit our teachers, students, and taxpayers rather than attempts to sow more discord,” said Jara.
CCEA has said it must gather 102,362 valid signatures from registered Nevada voters.
“These signatures must be evenly distributed across Nevada’s four Petition Districts, with a minimum of 25,591 signatures from each district, aligning with the geographic boundaries of Nevada’s Congressional Districts. The deadline for submitting these signatures to the County Clerk or Registrar of Voters for verification is set for November 20,” says CCEA.
The union is also working with state lawmakers on resolutions. It would not plan to put the initiative on the ballot until 2026.
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