The largest teachers union in the Clark County School District has declared that it will not speak to the Las Vegas Sun because it is “not objective” and has blocked the newspaper from its news conferences.
Clark County Education Association spokesperson Keenan Korth sent an email Wednesday to Sun editor, publisher and owner Brian Greenspun and managing editor Ray Brewer saying that “CCEA requests that the Sun’s staff no longer contact CCEA for stories.”
“For some time, CCEA has excluded the Sun from any media advisories and press releases, and we have not responded to your reporters’ inquiries for a reason,” Korth wrote. “We believe the Sun is not objective and, for a liberal media outlet, favors management over front line educators.”
The note arrived a day after Korth did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment after the School District released its proposal for a new teacher pay scale. And last week, the union did not directly respond to a request for reaction to CCSD’s announcement that extended instructional time at 47 high-needs schools would be cut next year as the district and union remained mired in contract negotiations.
The note acknowledges that CCEA has not responded to Sun queries made on multiple recent occasions, via phone call, email or text message, to Korth or the union’s executive director, John Vellardita. It does not specify what coverage it took issue with, but did say that in the future when the Sun publishes a story “that involves CCEA or CCEA represented members” to write that “CCEA will not speak to the Las Vegas Sun.”
The Sun spoke Thursday morning with Vellardita about the note, but he refused to allow any of that conversation to be used for this story.
The union, in its note, also tried to order the Sun to not attend future CCEA-hosted news conferences. “Your paper is not welcome,” Korth wrote.
“The union’s demands to manipulate coverage aren’t in keeping with honest journalism and are certainly not in the best interest of education or the community,” Brewer said. “Under no circumstance will any group distort or attempt to demand how we cover the community."
It is not uncommon, Brewer said, for stories that are accurate to be frustrating to both sides in a contentious matter because each side wants only its story told.
“But that’s a mark of effective, fair and honest journalism,” Brewer said. “If you want to dictate terms of coverage it might work with others, but you won’t find the Sun willing. We strive to tell all sides accurately. Simply refusing to tell its story means that the CCEA leadership is doing a disservice to the teachers it represents. Our coverage will continue in any event, with or without union leadership explaining its stance. Informing our readers is our goal, and we will accomplish that. I hope CCEA leadership reconsiders its surprising stance and participates in a dialogue that matters to the community.”
The Sun’s reporting on CCEA and CCSD has been thorough and balanced, with articles and investigations that have held both institutions accountable, Brewer said.
Brewer added that any member of the community who feels coverage is inaccurate or biased is welcome to contact the Sun, and that such dialogue is taken seriously. The CCEA, however, never expressed any such concerns to him until its action to cut off all contact Wednesday nor has it cited any errors in the reporting.
The Sun’s reporting last month discovered the district’s report of North Las Vegas schools having a 52% graduation rate to be inaccurate. It was actually 80% and higher than the districtwide average.
For several months, without explaining why, the CCEA has routinely refused to comment on stories for the Sun, even when given the opportunity to tout teacher achievements. For example, in various venues the union decried the inaccurate CCSD statement about the 52% graduation rate in North Las Vegas even though it reflected poorly on teachers and administrators. But when the Sun called for comment on the vastly higher number — a significant accomplishment by the teachers — CCEA refused comment to the Sun and did not correct its own statements about graduation rates.
In February, the Sun cited internal School District documents in an article saying that the union is taking a hard stance against bonuses, including proposed incentives of at least $20,000 for teachers at certain elementary schools where children struggle the most to read.
In May, the Sun relied on state records and internal district documents to show that CCEA operated without an active business license for nearly two years, leading the district to question if it could engage in contract negotiations. The CCEA refused to comment to the Sun when given an opportunity to tell its side of the story.
The Sun last attended a CCEA news conference in February outside the Grant Sawyer State Office building, a public facility and Southern Nevada’s legislative headquarters, in downtown Las Vegas.
The union spoke with the Sun on April 21 for a story after CCEA issued a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Jesus Jara’s ability to effectively spend the influx of state funding for public schools.
CCEA and Jara have publicly been at odds for several months. The union wants Jara, who secured a $75,000 pay raise and contract extension from the School Board last fall that keeps him at CCSD’s helm through June 2026, to resign or be fired. It cites poor student achievement in Jara’s five years in Clark County and says 75% of its members have no confidence in the superintendent.
CCEA did not join in the calls to terminate Jara in October 2021; at the meeting where a split School Board voted to fire Jara, one union officer said that Jara’s removal showed certain board members placed politics and personal agendas first and that board desires could chill bold vision by any superintendent. (The board reversed the firing a few weeks later.)
Most recently, CCSD showed another crack in its fractured relationship with the union Wednesday when it postponed a planned community outreach session with Jara at a Henderson cafe, citing a protest that CCEA members staged outside a similar outreach event the prior day at a Summerlin coffee shop. CCSD said the private property owner and business asked to no longer host Wednesday’s event.
CCEA represents all of CCSD’s roughly 18,000 licensed employees in labor negotiations although not all qualifying employees are signed up as dues-paying members.
As of May, 10,507 licensed employees — out of 18,257 who worked for CCSD at that time — had union dues withdrawn from their paychecks, the School District told the Sun in response to a public records request. The district’s data shows these numbers have been stable since 2020, with membership ranging from 10,454 to 10,530 dues-paying members in that time.
The Sun will continue to ask the union to participate in stories, Brewer said.