Two Clark County School Board members have hit a local television station with a cease and desist letter after it aired a teachers union-funded spot critical of the trustees that the pair say is false and misleading.
Linda Cavazos and Liza Guzman have asked KSNV-TV, Las Vegas’ NBC affiliate, and its parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, to stop running the 30-second ad, which they say aired on Wednesday.
The spot, paid for by the Clark County Education Association, accuses Guzman of using her board position to benefit her employer, the rival union Nevada State Education Association, and Cavazos of bullying and creating a toxic work environment. “Two untrustworthy school trustees: Lisa Guzman and Linda Cavazos,” a narrator says to close out the spot.
In the letter, Guzman and Cavazos threaten to sue KSNV if the station airs the spot again.
A representative for KSNV did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
“We stand by the content of the ad,” CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita said.
The letter states: “The advertisement exists to do nothing more than misrepresent and lie about items that have already been disproven… the content of the advertisement’s claims are provably false, and have been adjudicated on by appropriate authorities. The organization (CCEA) and its leadership have spent thousands of dollars of their members' money attempting to spread lies about President Cavazos and Trustee Guzman, and in particular Trustee Guzman.”
The criticism of Guzman revives issues CCEA outlined in a January conflict-of-interest complaint to the Nevada Commission on Ethics. The commission declined to open an investigation, Guzman said in February.
The allegations against Cavazos echo accusations that a lawyer for recently fired Superintendent Jesus Jara made in a letter to the district last week. Through his lawyer, Jara said he would be willing to drop the bullying and toxic work environment charges if CCSD paid him $2 million on top of the roughly $657,000 to buy out his contract.
The trustees voted 4-3 on Oct. 28 to fire Jara with a little more than a year left on his contract. Guzman and Cavazos were among the members who voted to dismiss Jara.
However, another trustee who voted for termination, Irene Cepeda, is slated to call for a vote to potentially reconsider the firing at the board’s Nov. 18 meeting. A request to investigate Jara’s workplace claims is also on the agenda — as is another attempt to move forward with the appointment of an interim superintendent to step in when Jara departs on Dec. 1. An attempt last week to start the interim process was derailed after trustees couldn't agree between an application procedure and promoting a member of Jara’s cabinet.
Representatives from CCEA have publicly supported evaluating Jara based on his performance, not “politics.”
The TV spot “(adds) to the dissension and division harming CCSD and the students we serve. Our students deserve better,” Guzman said in a tweet.
Guzman is assistant executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, a statewide union of educators. She was previously executive director of the Education Support Employees Association, a union for Clark County School District nonteacher staff and an NSEA affiliate. She was elected to the school board in 2020 and took office in January.