Union’s refusal to speak to news organization a disservice to teachers

The Clark County Education Association (CCEA) describes itself as “the union of teaching professionals,” but there was nothing professional about the behavior of the union’s leadership recently. Frankly, teachers deserve better.

Being an educator, especially in a public school system like the Clark County School District, which has been underfunded and underappreciated for decades, is already among the most difficult jobs in our society.

A noble goal such as teaching and a noble cause such as proper compensation for teachers and financial support of education shouldn’t be held hostage by shortsighted union leadership.

Clark County teachers have always known that they have a friend and advocate in the Las Vegas Sun. But we are the kind of friend who tells them the truth even when they don’t want to hear it.

For decades, our editorial board has consistently and routinely supported, and even demanded, better pay and working conditions for teachers. And we regard them as fundamental to society, indeed civilization.

Teachers deserve more pay, more support, more resources and more flexibility to do what they do best: educate our children.

Yet the staff leadership of their own union is instead pursuing a hopeless attempt to stop civic dialogue and bully the press.

Last week, after months of strange silence, the largest teacher’s union in the school district declared that it will not speak to the Las Vegas Sun.

CCEA spokesperson Keenan Korth sent an email Wednesday to the Sun saying that “CCEA requests that the Sun’s staff no longer contact CCEA for stories.” The email was sent on the authority of the union’s executive director, John Vellardita.

The reason CCEA severed its relationship with the Sun is because we have refused to allow them to dictate our coverage or hold stories simply because CCEA had yet to respond even after being given ample notice.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. In his email, Korth admitted to months of intentional passive-aggressive and unresponsive behavior by CCEA in which the Sun would reach out for comment and CCEA leadership would simply ignore the request.

“For some time, CCEA has excluded the Sun from any media advisories and press releases, and we have not responded to your reporters’ inquiries for a reason,” Korth wrote. “We believe the Sun is not objective and, for a liberal media outlet, favors management over front line educators.” In other words, we’re not helping them proselytize.

The email does not specify what coverage it took issue with, though the relationship undoubtedly began to deteriorate after the Sun reported on an attempt by the union bosses to block bonuses for teachers at impoverished schools — hardly an action that supports teachers.

It should also be noted that prior to the email, neither Korth nor Vellardita had reached out to any member of the Sun to discuss challenges in their relationship with the newsroom. Nor has CCEA’s leadership requested any retractions or corrections in recent months. Nor have the union’s leaders requested to sit down with our editorial board or newspaper leadership to voice their concerns.

The union’s executive director and spokesperson haven’t challenged our facts or reporting, only that we’re not biased enough in their favor. In other words, staff leadership demands that coverage be, essentially, pro-union propaganda, or it won’t represent its teachers’ interests to Sun readers.

These types of bullying tactics are corrosive to a union’s relationship to the community and to the members it is supposed to be serving. They demonstrate that Vellardita doesn’t understand dialogue, relationship building or negotiation, only coercion and brute-force demands. And this isn’t the first time.

A recent public forum between CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara and the community had to be canceled because the private business where it was to take place was worried about mass CCEA protests.

That’s not effective action, it’s an intimidation tactic designed to silence parents and concerned community members who want to speak with the leader of their local school district.

Forcing the forum to be canceled is already souring public response to the union’s ongoing war with Jara. Volunteering to permanently remove CCEA’s voice from the Sun isn’t going to help. Also worth noting along the way: The Sun has delivered plenty of hard-hitting stories that we suspect CCSD wasn’t happy with, too. That’s just responsible journalism.

Vellardita seems to think bullying tactics and use of “the silent treatment” are acceptable in professional relationships while completely missing the toxic truth that his behavior wouldn’t be accepted in the classrooms of the hardworking teachers he is supposed to represent.

His actions beg the question of whether the teachers of Clark County want the executive director representing them sulking in a corner and silencing their children’s parents instead of building bridges openly and honestly.

Ultimately, it’s the teachers, not Vellardita, who will pay the price for his antics. By refusing to tell the stories of Clark County’s teachers and classrooms, CCEA is doing a disservice to the teachers it represents and gaining nothing in the process. Just as teachers deserve better pay, resources and support, they also deserve better, more effective leadership.

The Sun fully endorses significant raises for the teachers and has done so for years. What we will not endorse and will not accept are bullying tactics by union bosses who want to mislead the public and seek to distort our coverage. The teachers of Clark County should look long and hard at their union staff and ask themselves if this is really the way they want to be represented.

The Sun will continue to reach out to CCEA leadership and invite them to sit down with us. While we deplore the futile foot-stomping of union leadership, our stories will keep flowing and our door remains open when leadership decides to talk. In the meantime, teachers who want to share the stories of their classrooms, students, successes, needs and desires are encouraged to contact the Sun and tell us their stories directly, unfiltered by the corrosive, uncommunicative nature of their union bosses.