1,000 teachers drop union memberships

Terry Webster

Friday, July 20, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

About 1,000 teachers have dropped their memberships with the Clark County Education Association this year.

The exodus came this month, when teachers can opt out of the union.

"In normal times, the number would be extraordinary," said John Jasonek, the union's executive director. "But these are not normal times."

Jasonek was referring to what he calls low morale among teachers and dissatisfaction with salaries and working conditions -- specifically overcrowded classrooms.

Some high school classes have as many as 40 to 50 students, said Mary Ella Holloway, the new union president.

School officials are unclear on whether the teachers who left the union also are leaving the school district.

"We are in the process of looking into that right now," Holloway said.

Membership in the union -- which costs about $600 a year -- is not mandatory.

Holloway said she believes teachers left the union over confusion about the bonuses for current and new teachers approved by the 2001 Legislature.

"There were a lot of misunderstandings and a lot of misinformation about it," she said.

A miscalculation by the state caused a shortfall in bonus funding, but the school district will still be able to provide the 3 percent bonus for teachers who were employed by the district last year and will be on active duty this fall.

The district also just received guidelines for the $2,000 signing bonus for new teachers.

Even that measure is causing unease among some veteran teachers.

"There are people who have worked here 10 and 15 years and are not getting anything extra," said Jasonek.

If large numbers of teachers have left the district, the predicted 500-teacher shortage for fall could grow.

George Ann Rice, assistant superintendent for human resources, said she does not feel that is going to happen.

"My sense is that most of these teachers are still with the district," she said.

At last count, school officials had hired approximately 1,000 of the 1,600 to 2,000 new teachers needed for fall. The number of teachers hired, however, is expected to rise this week.

"We've been madly interviewing UNLV summer graduates," Rice said. "On Aug. 1, we're going to stop the music and declare our critical shortage areas to the state and see how many retired teachers we need to hire."

The district is anticipating shortages in teachers for bilingual education, special education and speech pathology.

Last year about 85 percent of the district's teachers belonged to the union.

The union is hoping to recoup some of its membership through new fall hires.