The first day of school in the Clark County School District is Monday August 7.

And as of this taping on Thursday, August 3, the School District and its largest teachers union have yet to agree on a new contract.

Some top Democrats in the state are now getting involved, and here to explain how is April Corbin Girnus, Deputy Editor of the Nevada Current.

April, welcome back.

(April Corbin Girnus) Thanks for having me.

-Okay, so on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager held a press conference to tell the Clark County School District what?

-They basically said, we gave you guys a lot of money.

Figure out a contract, and give teachers raises.

Make it happen.

Stop messing around.

Stop playing games, and get to business and get the contract signed.

You know, I think there were Senators who said, you know, we gave you all of this money, and you're not-- we expect you not to nickel and dime teachers and students.

So they were kind of sending a message of like, hey, you need to sort of pay up, I think.

They didn't use any specific numbers.

They didn't use a percentage of what they're expecting the CCSD to give.

But they sort of sent a message to like, we are very unhappy with CCSD leadership.

And a lot of it is driven by the lack of a contract and just how messy it's been.

-All right.

But then the School District even went up to the legislature and had testimony of, they can use this new funding from the government, historic education funding amount for this state.

But they say even with that, they're going to be in the red if they implement these teacher raises.

And those raises that they want, in the simplest terms, 10% in the first year, 8% in the second.

So are these top Democrats essentially saying, we don't believe you?

They haven't quite gone that far, but it's very much hinting at that.

It's very much saying like, you need to make it happen, and we expect this to happen.

So they are kind of saying that.

The issue is that a lot of it, of the debate, focuses on this $250 million matching fund that the legislature created for districts.

And it said like, we will give you this money if you match that money and give it for teachers.

But CCSD is saying, we can't use that money for permanent raises, because the money is not guaranteed after this current biennium.

So come July 1, 2025, when the next biennium comes, they wouldn't have that money, which means that potentially CCSD could be in a huge shortfall and not be able to.

So they say it's fiscally irresponsible.

And Democrats are making, you know-- they don't have a great answer for that, but they are like, make something happen.

-Okay.

-Even beyond that, like you said, it was still a historic amount.

So there was still a lot of money around.

-Okay.

School starts August 7, as I mentioned.

The teachers union, CCEA, says its teachers are going to be at school, but they have given the District a deadline of August 26 to reach a deal.

What happens if they don't reach a deal?

-So CCEA has an all-members meeting on the 26th of August, and that's when they're going to decide what actions to take next if a contract isn't signed.

So we know that CCSD and CCEA are-- their next negotiating dates are August 17 and 18.

So ideally, we have a contract by then and everything is settled and nobody has to worry.

But come August 26, that's when CCEA is promising to take work actions.

-And "work actions," what on earth does that mean?

-Yeah.

So CCSD is claiming that CCSD is low-key threatening to strike.

They are not using that language, because it's illegal for them to go on strike.

But there's other kinds of work actions that you might see rather than a strike where everybody doesn't go and, like, has picket lines outside the door.

Other school districts across the country when they've had these kinds of things have had "sick outs," where a bunch of teachers call in sick.

They just take a personal day for themselves to be like, I need a break.

-Okay.

-So you can see something like that can shut down a school if there's enough teachers, which you know, CCSD is arguing that would be a strike.

But there's also other things.

You could also see CCEA members in mass saying, we refuse to work any one minute over our contract time.

So they have seven hours-- or seven hours and 11 minutes per day that they're on contract time.

A lot of teachers, most teachers will work above that, above and beyond that.

They're answering emails.

They're, you know, they're talking to parents.

They're putting a lot of extra curriculars in, you know, for nothing.

They don't have to do that.

They could say, we will not do any of that anymore, and we're only going to do contract time, which does sort of send a message.

Or we could see other things.

CCEA has been very vague about it.

They say that, because they'll decide that later this month if it comes to that.

-It's interesting that the union is not allowed to strike.

You said, that's part of state law?

-Yeah, it goes back to like the 1960s, which is before my time.

But it-- I'm not sure what particular strike led to that or the details, but it was put into law that instead, that they're not allowed to strike.

But instead, they have to negotiate in good faith, and they have to have a certain amount-- a certain number of days or time for negotiating days.

And then if they are still at an impasse at that point, then they go into arbitration where there'll be outsiders come in and decide who's right and what kind of money they should get.

And that's happened as recently as, I think, 2011.

-Okay, so there is some precedent for that.

So the School District is suing the teachers union, trying to prevent them from striking.

What has the teachers union response been?

-The teachers union has basically said that-- they kind of haven't tried to directly respond to that.

They've kind of said, you know, we didn't call it a strike.

We're not calling it a strike.

We haven't committed to anything.

We've committed to doing something on August 26 that will determine.

There's things they could do that are within the law.

So it seems-- I think a lot of people are viewing it as posturing.

I don't think CCEA is too worried about the injunction that CCSD is trying to get on them.

But we'll see.

There's a-- a lot of this is in public for show, and I think we're seeing that.

Yeah.

-Well, and that was part of the reason why the Clark County School District sued the teachers union was because of some of what the union had said to the media?

-Yeah.

So they said-- I mean, obviously because the executive director of CCEA goes up there and says, if we don't have a contract by August 26, we're going to take work actions.

And every journalist is like, do you mean a strike?

Or what is that?

You know, they're asking for details.

And they don't necessarily give straight answers, because they're like, they're vague.

They're like, well, we don't know yet.

It could mean a lot of things.

But obviously people's minds are going to go straight to "strike," and obviously people are thinking that.

I think CCSD is trying to get in front of that.

CCEA saying, well, give us a contract, and we can avoid it.

-Well, that's a scary thought to think of classrooms without teachers.

Also a scary thought for you if you do not tell your in-laws that you are going to be on Nevada Week.

I understand they get upset when you don't tell them you're going to be on TV.

-They do.

I get angry phone calls.

My husband gets angry phone calls.

They're very mad.

They're big fans.

They always like to know when I'm on.

-All right.

Well, you better tell them.

April Corbin Girnus, with the Nevada Current, thank you for your time.

-Thanks.