15 fired teachers file federal lawsuit against Clark County School District

As a growing number of states tinker with their teacher tenure laws, more than a dozen former Clark County educators have challenged the constitutionality of a Nevada statute that makes it easier for school districts to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom.

A group of 15 teachers who received a series of negative evaluations and ultimately lost their jobs at the Clark County School District claim their termination violates the contract rights and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

The lawsuit also challenges Assembly Bill 225, passed in 2011, that removed long-standing protections for teachers who complete two years of probationary employment in Nevada schools.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs worked between five and 22 years in the district before their termination in the 2013-14 school year.

The “teachers have suffered monetary loss, mental anguish and emotional distress as a result of the district’s termination of their employment in violation of their rights,” the lawsuit states.

Lawmakers in 2011 overwhelmingly approved AB 225 to curtail teacher tenure in the public school system.

Previously, teachers enjoyed statutory job security that allowed them to earn and retain tenure after their first two years of probationary employment.

Tenure offers several protections under state law, including a prohibition against districts firing tenured teachers for any reason other than immorality, insubordination, inadequate performance and more.

AB 225, however, provided a workaround for districts seeking to remove ineffective educators by automatically reverting them to a less-secure probationary status if they receive an “unsatisfactory” evaluation two years in a row.

Probationary teachers have no right to re-employment or to a notice and hearing if a district chooses not to renew their contract.

Tenure “creates a reasonable expectation of continued employment — and therefore a constitutionally protected property interest — on the part of teachers who successfully complete the statute’s probationary period,” the lawsuit reads.

Officials from the district and Clark County Education Association, which represents the teachers and joined the lawsuit, declined to comment.

While the complaint only lists the district as a defendant, it’s unclear whether the state attorney general’s office would have to intervene in the case to defend AB 225.

“We do not comment on pending litigation or whether or not we’ll get involved,” said Patty Cafferata, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

Nevada is hardly alone in its attempt to change how public school teachers get and keep tenure.

In the past five years, about 20 other states have passed legislation that attach some form of evidence of performance to tenure, according to Sandi Jacobs, vice president and managing director for state and district policy at the National Council on Teacher Quality.

“Nevada, though, is probably the only state in that group that has gotten far enough in implementation where teachers have actually had enough years to lose that status,” she added.

As for challenges, Jacobs recalled just one successful lawsuit in North Carolina, where the courts ruled tenure is a property right and nullified a law that placed a majority of teachers on one-year contracts.

She said the Nevada case represents the first in which the plaintiffs actually claimed some harm — namely, losing their job — from a legislative change to tenure.

“There’s no dispute that these teachers got that ineffective rating, so there may be a due process issue that needs to play itself out here,” Jacobs said, referring to notification and hearing protections for tenured teachers.

“We want to make sure teachers are treated fairly,” she added. “But at the same time, we need to make sure there are laws in place that doesn’t trap students with ineffective teachers.”

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton.