Teachers union responds after CCSD declares ‘impasse’ in negotiations

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - After classes at four Las Vegas Valley schools on Tuesday were canceled due to a shortage of teachers, the district has said negotiations with the union have reached an impasse.

“Due to a high number of unexpected teacher absences, the following schools have canceled classes for Tuesday, September 12, 2023,” Clark County School District announced Tuesday morning.

CCSD also released a statement that today’s 11th bargaining session with the Clark County Education Association were “declared an impasse.”

The full statement is:

The CCEA responded on Tuesday afternoon with a lengthy statement, acknowledging that CCSD “declared impasse in negotiations and refused to continue bargaining.” It added that the teacher’s union has “made contract proposals that are in alignment with the priorities passed in the 2023 Legislative Session and the governor’s budget.”

It noted that there are currently nearly 2,000 teacher vacancies in the district, with Title I schools representing 82% of those. It said that CCEA made “two key proposals” to fund those positions for special education teachers, but that the district “never attempted to address those issues until this past month—and even then, made proposals that did not adequately address the vacancy crisis.”

The statement went on to add that Clark County teachers have not seen a cost-of-living increase in two years, “despite 8% inflation in one year alone.” It added that the district began the school year by reducing salaries by 1.875%.

“Unfortunately, arbitration doesn’t happen like a light switch,” the statement said in conclusion. “And in the time it takes to resolve, CCEA is sad to say that, under Superintendent Jara, 300,000 students will lose another year of instruction because more educators will quit, their classes will be the largest in the nation, and CCSD will fail to recruit the new educators needed to teach them.”

The entire CCEA statement is available below:

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