For nearly two years, tensions have mounted in Clovis over efforts to form a teachers union, but it appears likely that Clovis Unified will remain California’s largest district without a one for the foreseeable future.

The Association of Clovis Educators first launched efforts in 2020 but has failed to obtain the necessary support from teachers to move forward.

ACE remains mired in a fight over CUSD’s Faculty Senate — the district-supported teachers’ group that has operated in Clovis in lieu of a formal union. ACE has accused the district of unfair labor practices, including “continued illegal financial support of the Faculty Senate.” That fight is expected to continue for up to another year before the California Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB.

As ACE efforts appeared to stall, a second group emerged last year, promising to bring a teachers union to Clovis schools that is independent of the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. ACE’s ties to those influential unions remain a critical sticking point for many of ACE’s detractors.

The second effort, known as Independent Clovis Unified Educators, was launched by two former members of the Faculty Senate, who said they wanted to create a non-traditional teachers union that would give them more local control than they might have under the CTA’s umbrella.

But ICUE’s efforts have also appeared to stall after a year of signature gathering.

In the middle – supporting neither ACE nor ICUE – there are a number of teachers whose support could ultimately decide whether either group wins enough support.

Both groups say those teachers aren’t talking, leaving everyone at an impasse.

Amid that standstill, tensions have mounted, and questions have surfaced about each group’s intentions, endeavors, and plans.

Who’s who?

Based on ICUE’s planned model, if it can get over 50% of Clovis Unified’s approximately 2,000 teachers to sign on, ICUE would be an “alternative” to the traditional union model.

Kindergarten teacher Kim Mongelli and high school English teacher Erin Garcia helped launch ICUE following their resignations from the Faculty Senate.

ACE has accused CUSD of influencing and supporting the faculty senate for decades despite a 1980s ruling that found the district violated the Educational Employment Relations Act.

CUSD has allegedly done so by paying Faculty Senator stipends, relieving the senate president of their teaching duties for senate business, providing release time to other senate executives, and allowing the use of a school district credit card.

Mongelli said she recognized that the school district could not financially fund an organization to represent teachers.

Local law firm Goyette, Ruano and Thompson advised Mongelli on her options for creating an independent group recognized by PERB, which certifies unions.

The law firm would be the legal representative for ICUE.

Without a recognized employee organization in place, Faculty Senate, ICUE and ACE can provide input to Clovis Unified but can’t negotiate or collectively bargain with the district for teachers.

ACE has been trying to organize since at least July 2020 to provide a “meaningful voice” in the district’s decision-making process. Many teachers said they felt excluded from the decision-making during the coronavirus pandemic. ACE currently represents only the district’s mental health professionals during bargaining.

Why affiliation matters to each group

Teachers’ unions in California are often synonymous with CTA, Garcia said about the district’s long resistance to unionization. She called CTA’s influence a “monopoly” over school district representation.

“Most of the teachers are proud to be in a place that doesn’t have the CTA involved,” Garcia said.

Clovis Unified thrives in dramatic arts, music, sports and academics in a measurable way, and the one difference between Clovis Unified and others is the affiliation, Garcia discussed.

The school district “respects its teachers’ right to have these discussions about how their voice is represented in conversations that impact their world of work,” CUSD spokesperson Kelly Avants said via email.

Although neutral about organization efforts, the district has acknowledged the employee angst with unionization.

“Philosophically, I think a lot of the people who come to work here are drawn by the fact that they aren’t suddenly forced into a bigger issue (if unionized),” Avants has said. “They don’t like people taking their voice.”

Both ACE and CTA members said that it is not who CTA is or what it does.

In the simplest terms, CTA is a “coalition of educators” of over 300,000 statewide.

And ACE is proud of that affiliation, organizer Kristin Heimerdinger said.

They have “unmatched” expertise in curriculum, school finance, staff development and educational law, she said.

“We see the affiliation with CTA as nothing but a benefit for Clovis Unified educators and students,” Heimerdinger said.

CTA has “never” told ACE what they need to do, Heimerdinger and Clovis teacher and ACE executive cabinet member Jaime Arredondo said.

The decision-making is up to Clovis educators and will be done by elected teachers if ACE becomes the employee organization.

Eva Ruiz, a CTA board member, echoed that sentiment.

“We provide support and resources to our locals,” Ruiz said. “Our locals run their associations by way of their own members. They build their leadership. They vote for their leaders. That’s the democratic process.”

Perhaps the perception about CTA controlling local districts comes from CTA’s endorsements, but as a democratic organization, educators can vote on endorsements and can say whether they want their dues to support political efforts, ACE and CTA members said.

Dues-paying members can opt-out of payments to political matters, according to Arredondo and Ruiz.

The dues would go to ACE as the local entity, CTA as the state association and NEA as the national organization for services at different levels and member benefits.

ACE members have questioned the fact that ICUE is “aligned with a for-profit law firm” as its legal representative.

“We’re all very worried about if something happens, if Goyette is our legal representation, if they’re going to be worried about their law firm and not CUSD employees,” Arredondo said.

The law firm has worked with similar organizations like ICUE.

What do two efforts mean for teachers?

ACE and ICUE face similar struggles in gathering employee signatures: they must get 51% of approximately 2,000 teacher signatures within a year to be automatically recognized by PERB.

Since first organizing in 2020, ACE has had to renew old signatures as they gather new ones, something ICUE must soon do.

It remains unclear which group is closer to reaching the 51% threshold.

ICUE holds more than 30% of teacher signatures.

“We’re very transparent,” Garcia said. “ACE has never released their numbers, and I can’t think of a good reason why you wouldn’t want to tell people.”

ACE maintains its decision not to disclose its number of signatures to honor and respect educators’ privacy, especially those who are afraid of retaliation for supporting ACE.

“Unfortunately, Clovis Unified has made the topic of unions so uncomfortable that we continue to battle that reality,” Heirmerdinger said. “People will quietly support ACE, but they don’t want to be public about it. It is out of respect for those who want to see positive change in their school district but are scared. We continue to stick by that decision.”

Even revealing overall numbers evidently leads to questions about what schools the teachers work at, she said.

In discussing transparency, Heirmerdinger said ICUE lacks transparency on what they stand for and what issues they’re working on.

“ICUE is here to support teachers and that’s what we do daily,” Mongelli said. “We have sent out surveys for teachers’ input, we take teachers’ concerns to Superintendent’s Cabinet or site administrators, and we work with teachers and the district office to solve various issues.”

ACE conducts surveys, sends out weekly newsletters, continues to establish its social media presence and meets with teachers to listen to their problems and work to find solutions with district administration, Arredondo and Heimerdinger said.

ACE has also advocated for elementary school teachers to get more prep time for their lesson plans, the upkeep in facilities, reduced class size, salaries and instructional aids, Arredondo discussed.

“Until we’ve got a true seat at the bargaining table, we’re still at the behest of what our administrators feel is necessary, but we will continue to do the work that our teachers want us to do,” Arredondo said.

Both sides agree, winning over the undecided teachers remains key.

“We have a lot of teachers who choose not to engage, that they will worry about it when they are forced to worry about it,” Heimerdinger said. “And that works to the detriment of all of us because the quicker we can have an exclusive representative, the quicker we can actually start negotiating with the district to get improvements for teachers and students.”

Until that happens, different factions of teachers are talking to different groups, Garcia said, so each is representing some teachers but not all.

Whichever group collects a majority of signatures first can file a petition to be certified. But if the other group has 30% of signatures, that group can request an intervention to the existing petition, which will force a vote between union 1, union 2 or no union. Whichever has a majority of votes gets certified.

“I think that will be the best possible outcome,” Heimerdinger said. “If we were to get to that point,” Heimerdinger said. “I think our colleagues would work to be informed and actively seek out information on who they would be supporting.”

While the path forward remains unclear, both sides also agree Clovis Unified educators need an employee organization at the bargaining table.

“We need to get together, work together,” Mongelli said, “and have one teachers’ group with one voice.”

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