Clark County Board of School Trustees Meeting
Introduction and Summary of Meeting
The Clark County Board of School Trustees Meeting took place at Liberty High School, Theater on Thursday, August 22, 2019. After invocation, there was room for public comment on non-agenda items and this lasted until the meeting was over. Clark County School District is unable to fulfil the promises it makes to the teachers. The main issues raised to the trustees by the public in the meeting include the constant freezing of teachers’ pay, denying teachers of their earned column advancements, disrespect for teachers, and failure to honor the contracts signed by teachers in the District. In the public comment session, Kelly Edgar associated the District’s inability to retain quality teachers with the District’s habit of making promises it cannot keep. Due to constant pay freezes, some teachers like Harold Nicholas vowed to no longer teach without the column advancement. Again, the hiring process in the District was labelled bad and inconsiderate. The Board’s trustees are collecting public comments in attempts to restore and resolve the ongoing teacher problems in the District. In the meeting, the public is compelling the Clark County School District (CCSD) to honor teachers’ collectively bargained contract. Paul notes that the CCSD’s bad history of dishonoring contracts needs evaluation. Vikki Courtney points that CCSD needs to fulfil its promise by compensating educators for their performance improvement. Autumn Tampa supported that educators should get pay raises as promised by CCSD. Danny Prices said that if the District is unable to compensate teachers for advancements, more funding is needed. Jim Frazee noted that the Board has done things wrongly in the last three years, making teachers spent a lot in earning credit units (CU) so that they earn more in Professional Growth System (PGS) plan. The Board should stop antagonizing teachers; this will restore and rebuild their faith in CCSD.
Fundamental Principles of American Government Associated with this Meeting
In the U.S., teacher compensation is more than salary. Teacher compensation is considered as the valuable package that includes salary, benefits, extra pay, and pension (Odden & Kelley, 2002). In the context of this meeting, the issue of poor teacher compensation has attracted public concern since Clark County is lacking quality teachers. Clark County needs to re-examine compensation structures to better support and drive effective learning. Nationally, the National Education Association (NEA) works for the interests of American teachers. Some of the fundamental American government principles associated with this meeting include: (1) the base salary principle and (2) the salary tiers or advancement through the levels principle.
Teacher Base Salary Principle
In the U.S., teacher compensation must align with the NEA principles. The base salary principle requires a professional growth schedule to begin with a professional-level salary of at least $40,000 for entrant teachers and that educators be able to attain their maximum salary on the salary schedule after a period of 10 years (Allen & Wallace, 2010). In reference to the meeting, the CCSD is known of not honoring their signed collective bargaining contract with teachers when it comes to their compensation. Long-serving teachers are not receiving salary increments as promised when signing employment contracts. Over the past 10 years, the CCSD has tarnished its trust among teachers as there are no salary advancements, and this is against NEA’s requirements. No single teacher should have a stagnant salary.
The 14th Amendment prohibits any State or County of depriving teachers their compensation rights without due process of law. In respect to this, the CCSD is compelled by the law to honor the outline for teachers’ career path that have served for long and ensure that they are given their salary package and recognition in accordance to the law (Don & Leonard, 2015). American government laws require that teacher professional growth salary schedule be designed with educators via collective bargaining act. Despite the existence of collective bargaining act in Clark County, none of teachers’ contracts have been honored by the CCSD. More experienced teachers are legally determined through the number of years in service, and NEA requires that they be equally supported, trained, and compensated like other professionals.
Teacher Salary Tiers or Advancement through the Tiers Principle
According to this NEA principle, a professional educator salary growth schedule must contain various tiers through which teachers having the prescribed knowledge, skills, degrees, licenses, responsibilities, certifications, and accomplishments are considered (Sharkansky, 2007). The American Teacher Compensation Act requires that early levels on salary schedule be linked to the probationary period of employment and professional growth through the stipulated levels. The U.S. government has passed laws requiring that each professional tier must build on the previous one and have salary increments for a given timespan. However, these law requirements have been overly ignored in Clark County. The teacher hiring process and compensation policies in this district are foolish _ the district freezes payments for teachers coming from other districts to match their policies.
During the public comment session in the meeting, one speaker is discouraged by lack of column advancement and pledges to not teach again until this issue is addressed. Lack of column advancement is against the NEA’s principle of salary tiers (Allen & Wallace, 2010). Pay freezing and lack of column advancement reveals how the district lacks respect for teachers. The argument that the district is unable to keep or retain the quality teachers is supported by the fact that it cannot keep the promises it makes. The only sure way to retain quality teachers is by honoring column advancements. The American government provides a system which allows educators to make extra money for more involvement. Clearly, the district’s teachers and other interest parties are lobbying for flexibility that their contracts do not offer.
Aspects of American or Nevada Political Culture that Included in the Meeting
The main point of the meeting is advocating for teachers’ rights. Nevada’s political culture provides a patterned and distinctive way of political and economic life that reflects the people’s expectations about how the American government should operate. The core American values included in the meeting include: equality, democracy, and liberty.
Democracy: According to (Don & Leonard, 2015), Americans believe that government officials must be accountable to the people. Teachers form important professionals in America, and antagonizing them is anti-Americans expectations. In the meeting, the public is unhappy because CCSD is not respecting teachers, honoring teachers’ contracts, not offering column advancements, not setting teacher-welfare budgets, and not retaining quality teachers. As a result, children are not getting the deserved quality education. This means that, the points raised in the meeting are after defending teachers’ and children’s democratic right to professional growth and quality education respectively.
Liberty: In this aspect of Nevada political culture, Americans are preoccupied with their rights; they believe that they should be given their rights insofar as this does not hurt or harm other people (Don & Leonard, 2015). In the meeting, teachers are being deprived of their liberty when it comes to their signed collective bargaining contracts. Again, the public is compelling the trustees of Clark County to ensure that the district becomes responsible and fulfils the promises it gave to teachers. Fulfilling the promises given to teachers only benefits children’s in the district through quality education, and this causes no harm to people.
Equality: According to Nevada political culture, all Americans must have equal opportunities to succeed (Don & Leonard, 2015). Teaching is a professional like any other, and this meeting seeks to compel the CCSD to respect teachers and honor the promises it makes towards teachers. Since other professions are allowed to advance in terms of salary increment, the government should give teachers the same right. Without equality, the CCSD will continue to have a broken relationship and trust with teachers and support staff. Also, the PGS plan for teachers must be treated the same like that of other professionals. Thus, the government must treat teachers with respect and dignity.
Summary and Conclusion
The government has the obligation to offer teachers the column advancement they have earned. However in the analyzed meeting, teachers are disrespected, undervalued, and antagonized by the district’s Superintendent and Board. Among the ideas analyzed about the meeting in this paper include the constant teacher pay freezes, lack of respect, no compensation for service improvement, and failure to honor the collective bargained contract signed with educators by the CCSD. The fundamental American principles associated with this meeting are the base salary and salary tiers principles among many other professional growth salary schedule related principles. In the context of these principles, the paper has posited that the district does not recognize and reward teachers who attain the requirements of their signed collective bargaining contract. Also in the paper, the liberty, equality, and democracy aspects of Nevada political culture have been discussed as evidenced in the Clark County Board of School Trustees Meeting. Therefore, the district must position educators on par with professional advancement opportunities, salary, and career earnings of comparably prepared professionals.
References
- Allen, M. D., & Wallace, S. L. (2010). Teaching introduction to American government/politics: What we learn from the visual images in textbooks. Journal of Political Science Education, 6(1), 1-18.
- Don, D. W., & Leonard, G. E. (2015). Nevada Politics and Government: Conservatism in an Open Society. Politics and Governments of the American State Series, 6(1), 125-129.
- Odden, A., & Kelley, C. (2002). Paying teachers for what they know and do: New and smarter compensation strategies to improve schools. Boston: Corwin Press.
- Sharkansky, I. (2007). Government expenditures and public services in the American states. American Political Science Review, 61(4), 66-77.