How did Clovis Unified’s Faculty Senate violate labor rules? What’s next for teachers?

The state ordered Clovis schools to disband its Faculty Senate last week, ending a 47-year era for the group that some say has stood in the way of a genuine teachers union for decades.

Clovis Unified School District’s Faculty Senate was founded in 1977, according to a December resolution from the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).

At some point – the district said it’s not sure exactly when – Clovis Unified started financially supporting the Faculty Senate, and controlling it in other ways, which made it less of an employee representative body and more an employee relations arm of management, according to state labor officials.

This included paying for supplies, a car and cell phone for leadership, stipends and other expenses. The state said that Clovis spent $610,000 on its Faculty Senate from 2020-2022.

Meanwhile, none of these resources and access was granted to the Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), a teacher group attempting to unionize since 2020, or other groups attempting to unionize or form other representative groups.

In this month’s ruling, the PERB said that based on testimonies of multiple witnesses, the state agency infers that Clovis Unified’s funding of the Faculty Senate had been going on for a “significant period” of time.

The district has told The Fresno Bee that it would be difficult to provide a detailed accounting of how much has been spent, and the type of expenses, on its Faculty Senate over the years.

The PERB decided that the financial support and preference was anti-union and unlawful. The unequivocal ruling with strong language described the district and Faculty Senate as a union-blocking dominating group, using money and influence to block other teacher groups from organizing.

Clovis schools is known for its largely union-free status.

At first, the PERB ruled in December that the district needed to stop providing resources and financial support to the Faculty Senate. This month, the state agency went further and ordered the group to disband for its decades of “extensive” violations.

In a 2008 district document titled “Clovis Unified Faculty Senate Bylaws,” the Faculty Senate’s mission reads the group should be an “effective advocate” for teachers when acting as their collective voice with the district.

However, discontent among teachers and district employees led to the district taking control over the Faculty Senate, according to the PERB’s findings, and Clovis Unified then ran the senate’s election, moving its president’s office closer to human resources and promising the group would comply with district expectations.

The 2008 bylaws read that members of the Faculty Senate should conduct the group’s elections, and there is no mention of the district. According to this document, the Faculty Senate board is formed by a president, vice president, secretary, communications officer, and parliamentarian.

The senate itself is formed by one senator for each elementary, intermediate, high and educational services schools, plus senators for teaching areas where teachers might rotate classes and/or schools, such as music, special education, and other subjects the board might consider. All positions – board and senate – are two-year terms and elected by the district’s staff.

Clovis Unified’s administration is referenced a couple of times, in sentences outlining how the Faculty Senate president and members should meet regularly with Clovis Unified administrators to talk about matters teachers are concerned about. There is no mention of district-granted funds, stipends or resources.

An online search for Clovis Unified’s Faculty Senate webpage does yield a result for one with that name. Yet, upon clicking, an error message appears across the screen.

Clovis Unified has not said if it will appeal PERB’s latest orders.

After Monday’s special governing board meeting, Clovis Unified spokesperson Kelly Avaints said the board gave the district permission to take “whatever action was deemed appropriate” once the district is done analyzing the resolution to decide how to respond to it.

If Clovis Unified doesn’t appeal the PERB’s resolution, then the district superintendent will have to read a text out loud and be recorded on video reading aloud the district’s violations and orders to disband the Faculty Senate. Once the video is recorded, it must be shared with district staff.