As most of you are aware by now, CCSD has voted to approve the negotiated agreement for 2018-2021 with the CCEA. Many may be asking, what does the new contract mean for the rank and file educator and what you can expect from NEA-SN? The basic tenets of this agreement are educators that were hired prior to 2017 will get the step movement on the salary scale going back to June 2018 and it will take the Teachers Health Trust off life support. For the remaining duration of the contract, educators will remain frozen unless relief can come from the Nevada State Legislature. Language in this agreement binds the district to pay 70% of any additional funds that the legislature provides into the Distributive School Account (DSA), excluding categorical funding. Although this language has a negative effect on our brother and sister support staff and school police members, our only option is to push hard during the next legislative session to seek that funding.
This is something that NEA-SN and NSEA have already committed to doing. As part of the Fund Our Future Now coalition, we have joined with other community groups that recognize the inequities of the current education funding plan, along with the lack of commitment from the state to fully fund public education. As a part of this coalition, and independently, we have been actively engaged with those who will determine educational policies at the state level.
As members, this is the time to distinguish our union. Following in the education revolution that is sweeping the country, this is the time to call for the kind of workload changes that have
overburdened our profession for years and to seek the level of professional autonomy that allows us to provide appropriate instruction to our students. Now is the time to engage those allies we want as friends in the legislature, to get politically active and to solidify our relationships with pro-public education candidates.
If you haven’t been a part of a political campaign before, you still have time. We need you! We will be reaching out to you and asking to connect you with an endorsed candidate in your area. These candidates, when elected, can go a long way in providing the needed funding and reforming the neglected areas of education policy that we need. This is what will make us stand out! Please stand together with us and donate a few hours of your time to an endorsed candidate!
In Solidarity,
Vicki Kreidel
NEA-SN, President
