Unionized ASL interpreters say Clovis Unified outsourced positions remotely with higher pay
The union representing Clovis Unified’s American Sign Language interpreters accused the district of subcontracting with remote interpreters and paying them more as the union bargains its first contract.
The Association of Clovis Educators, which represents the ASL interpreters who serve the district’s deaf and hard of hearing students, said it discovered at the bargaining table in January that Clovis Unified contracted with an outside agency to provide remote interpreting services to students through iPads.
Meanwhile, the district-employed interpreters have long been negotiating with the district about issues such as caps on working hours and understaffing due to non-competitive pay.
The union filed charges last week against the school district, accusing it of violating district-employed interpreters’ bargaining rights by not communicating with them about its use of contractors.
Clovis Unified is among the few school districts in California that does not have a teacher’s union, but ASL interpreters gathered enough signatures to petition for unionization last August. The district’s governing board approved the hiring of interpreters by an outside agency, Soliant Health, in late September, and entered a semester-long contract at the end of January of up to $332,000 for the services, according to the Association of Clovis Educators.
“They’ve been guaranteed seven hours a day, my hours are 6.5 a day,” said Shonda Harrar, bargaining representative and ASL interpreter at Buchanan High School. “Their cost is going to be higher than ours, because they have more hours, and their hourly rate is higher than ours.”
District interpreters work 6.5 hours a day at high school and middle schools, and six hours at elementary schools, said Harrar. The district also employs pre-certified interpreters who do not qualify for health benefits because the district caps their workload at 5.9 hours, she said.
Clovis Unified is paying a total weekly rate of $10,535 for three contractors, each working 35 hours a week, according to Harrar, while a district-employed interpreter at the top of the pay scale makes less than $1,500 per week.
“One of the main things that we have been asking is to increase hours so that we have more coverage. We have interpreters who have to leave early because we cap the hours,” said Harrar. “The second issue is, the virtual remote interpreter is not the optimal option when it comes to sign language. It’s difficult to manage the things that we do in a classroom from a screen.”
This is the first time in years that the district uses contractors to provide daily interpreting services in the classroom, according to the Association of Clovis Educators.
“None of the interpreters can recall the district ever contracting with an outside agency in the last 13 years,” said Kristin Heimerdinger, the spokesperson for the association.
Clovis Unified’s spokesperson Kelly Avants said the district’s use of contractors isn’t meant to replace any employees, but, rather, to provide support during the hiring process.
“Each year we have normal employee attrition from retirements and resignations expected during the school year and [we] began exploring a contract for the provision of occasional short-term employees at the beginning of this school year,” said Avants. “We remain committed to hiring permanent employees into the open positions in our district.”
Currently, the district has at least three vacancies, Harrar said, adding that the team of 25 interpreters needs to fulfill the demand for 28 sessions.
This school year, the team has lost 11 interpreters, nine of whom left for jobs with better pay and benefits, Harrar said.
“It was because we can’t afford to live on what we’re paid currently,” said Harrar.
