CCEA trying to blame Jones for CCEA director making over $600K in 2009
The Clark County Education Association is upset. Not about its former executive director John Jasonek, taking home over $600,000 a year to run the union and two affliated non-profits, although it did admit there was no justification for his "triple dip."
CCEA is upset with the CCSD and Superintendent Dwight Jones for (allegedly) daring to call attention to CCEA's outrageous behavior.
CCEA President Ruben Murillo, Jr. sent a letters to Jones and the CCSD board Wednesday, blaming Jones for what has happened.
However, I write to you today to inform you that CCEA's Executive Board no longer has confidence that the relationship [between CCSD and CCEA] can be maintained. It is evidence, that under your direction, the Superintendent's office has embarked on a calculated campaign to smear CCEA's reputation and bargain through the media in order to force teachers to accept concessionary demands. ...Now I have no way of knowing the level of involvement CCSD had with this story, but the claim that it's trying to "smear CCEA's reputation" is ridiculous ... and hilarious.
Accordingly, from this point forward, CCEA is selectively suspending its involvement in any number of the collaborative ventures with CCSD.
Pointing out exactly what CCEA employees made, as shown in CCEA's own tax returns, is a smear campaign?
Nope, CCEA's union bosses have done the damage, and it's no smear (whether originating from Jones' office or good investigative reporting by the RJ) to point out how the union bosses enriched themselves to the determent of teachers. Exposing the excesses of powerful individuals who claim to only want the best for teachers is exactly why having an engaged media is so important.
The first rule of damage control is to stop digging, and if I was running CCEA, I'd immediately issue an apology (if not offering some resignations) to my members and the public and conduct and release both performance and financial audits of CCEA and its affiliate organizations.
Instead CCEA is trying to make this about Jones and "is selectively suspending its [CCEA's] involvement in any number of the collaborative ventures with CCSD."
In other words, CCEA can't get its way, so it wants to take its ball and go home. In many ways, I think that's only going to make the situation worse for Murillo and CCEA.
