Two groups have tried to unionize Clovis teachers for years. How close are they?
A yearlong dispute stemming from the California Public Employment Relations Board ruling to dissolve Clovis Unified’s union-like group, the Faculty Senate, came to a conclusion last week. But teachers’ efforts to unionize continue, and one group says its close to earning formal recognition.
Last Wednesday, Norm Anderson, the district’s deputy superintendent, read the PERB ruling notice issued in June 2024 to all district employees. The ruling found the district violated its neutrality by providing unlawful support to the Faculty Senate and deterring employees’ free choice in joining the Association of Clovis Educators, among other infractions.
“This forces the district to take accountability for the fact that they broke the law and to acknowledge that they’ve been ordered to stop breaking the law,” said Kristin Heimerdinger, spokesperson for ACE, one of the two groups vying to unionize the district’s teachers.
The PERB ruling required Clovis Unified Superintendent Corrine Folmer to read the notice verbatim, with no additional statements of any kind, to . But the district decided to appeal.
“She did not read it because one of the district’s bases for appeal is that they didn’t want the superintendent to have to read it. So, in an effort to avoid prolonged litigation on these issues, we requested mediation with the district so that we could put this issue to bed and move forward,” Heimerdinger said.
ACE agreed that Anderson could read the notice in place of the superintendent, with Barry Jager, the district’s associate superintendent of human resources, by Anderson’s side, Heimerdinger said.
Kelly Avants, Clovis Unified’s spokesperson, said the district official’s reading the notice to employees ended the dispute. The district has already posted the ruling to every school site, as required by PERB. The information is identical to previous releases.
Groups vying for unionization
The competition to unionize Clovis teachers is mainly between two organizations, ACE and Independent Clovis Unified Educators.
ACE was established in April 2021 and is affiliated with the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
In recent years, ACE successfully organized several small unions among district employees, including school psychologists and American Sign Language interpreters.
To become an exclusively recognized representative group, ICUE or ACE need to collect signatures from more than 50% of the district’s teachers.
Heimerdinger declined to provide the number of signatures ACE has gathered, and said members fear voicing support for ACE because the district has an anti-union culture.
“ICUE is an organization of the status quo, so it is their stated goal to be like the Faculty Senate, which is an organization that did not have collective bargaining rights, that didn’t advocate for the best interest of teachers and students,” Heimerdinger said.
Erin Dieterle Garcia, a member of ICUE, said the group, which was also formed in 2021, is focused only on district issues and wants to be independent of any state or national political groups and organizations, such as the state’s teachers association.
Dieterle Garcia said it would be difficult to maintain flexibility, responsiveness and attention to local issues if the district’s teachers union were to be affiliated with the CTA. Clovis Unified outperforms neighboring districts in “pretty much every metric that you can think of,” she said.
The neighboring districts’ teachers unions, such as Fresno Unified, Central Unified, and Sanger Unified, are each affiliated with the CTA.
“We believe very strongly in the values of Clovis Unified and think Clovis Unified teachers can take the best care of Clovis Unified teachers,” Dieterle Garcia said. “We try to do things our own way. The CTA, for sure, has a place. We just think we can do it better.”
ICUE has gathered signatures from 45% of the district’s certificated teachers, according to Dieterle Garcia.
ICUE has a lower dues structure — $39 per month — which is less than half of of monthly dues for ACE members. The group partners with a local law firm to help members with matters that allow for representation, as well as collective bargaining, Dieterle Garcia said.
“We think these advantages fit better with CUSD culture than the traditional teachers union model,” she said.
