Former union chief’s hiring decried

The former president of the teachers union has been hired by the Clark County School District to investigate working conditions, but one critic said the hiring of Mary Ella Holloway was further evidence of collusion between top union officials and district administrators.

Holloway, who stepped down this summer as the union president, "has only been doing the district's work for the past eight years," said Ron Taylor, a candidate for School Board District B and critic of the Clark County Education Association.

Holloway said Taylor's accusations are baseless.

"I'm just like any other teacher in Clark County," Holloway said.

In her new position as a project facilitator, Holloway will help conduct surveys and look for ways to improve teacher morale as a member of the "Teaching and Learning Conditions Committee," a task force that Holloway helped create three years ago during the collective bargaining process.

Karyn Wright, the director of K-12 teacher development, said Holloway was treated like another candidate during the application process.

"She applied, she interviewed, she went through the process, and she was the most qualified person for the position," Wright said.

In all, 19 people applied for two openings on the four-member committee.

The non-classroom job, which is not an administrative position, pays in the top range of $70,000 for teachers with 14 or more years of experience.

Holloway has said she has about 30 years of experience.

She also stressed that she is a "highly qualified teacher" under the definition of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" because she has a master's degree and 50 additional credit hours of teacher accreditation.

Holloway started her job Aug. 27 and has a one-year contract.

Taylor, who is a middle school teacher, said the district should have delayed the hire or at least waited until Sept. 10, which is when the Local Government Management-Employees Relations Board is expected to rule on whether the teachers' union was right to expel him from its organization.

As the former union president, Holloway is listed as one of parties in the case.

If the board rules in Taylor's favor, he said, Holloway would be "guilty of unfair labor practice."

Taylor said he is certain of winning the case because the board had originally ruled in his favor earlier this summer, saying the union had shown him animosity and was trying to squelch his dissent.

In an appeal, the education association got the board to set aside its ruling and continue the case.

The union successfully argued that unions have the right to expel people who would destroy the organization.

Taylor once attempted to decertify the teachers' union and had also recruited for the rival Teamsters.

Still, Taylor is confident he'll prevail.

Taylor said the union's lawyers have approached him about settling the case outside of court, offering him to pay his legal fees but not wanting to admit to any wrongdoing. Taylor declined the offer.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug @reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.