LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Clark County Education Association's appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court amid an ongoing dispute with the Clark County School District was denied on Friday.
The union representing CCSD teacher's had appealed a District Court judge's ruling granting an injunction against the union.
Earlier this week, a Clark County judge found that the recent wave of "mass sickouts" affecting schools across the valley was "clearly a strike."
In its two-page denial, the Supreme Court wrote, "...we are not persuaded that a stay is warranted."
Lawyers for CCSD argued "the 'overwhelming' evidence is that" CCEA's "months-long campaign to threaten an illegal teacher strike has played out exactly like [the union] promised it would."
In response to the Supreme Court's ruling, school district officials wrote that they "are pleased that the injunction granted by the District Court remains in place."
"As we indicated in response to CCEA's emergency request to stay the injunction, the only emergency in this case is the continuance of a teacher strike and the resulting harm to children," officials stated.
In Nevada, it is illegal for public employees to go on strike. Instead, employers and unions must enter arbitration if they cannot agree on contract terms.
Earlier this week, CCSD declared an impasse in its months-long contract negotiations with the teachers' union and moved to take bargaining to arbitration.
The union last went to arbitration with CCSD in 2018 and it took the parties 18 months to come to an agreement, CCEA executive director John Vellardita told Channel 13.
"We are going to do all we can to expedite that," Vellardita said. "It could take as long as maybe eight, nine, 10 months."
