Group offers insurance for school employees

A new organization for school employees is forming in Southern Nevada that promises to provide members with liability insurance to protect them if they are sued.

The Professional Association of Clark County Educators, or PACCE, is open to employees who work for a school or school district, public or private. The group, a nonprofit trade association, is not a union because the organization won't conduct collective bargaining, said Cindy Allen, a chairwoman for PACCE.

Allen, an art teacher at Von Tobel Middle School and adjunct professor at UNLV, said the group will be available to licensed and non-licensed employees such as janitors or substitute teachers.

Allen said the organization's prime benefits for members will be legal counsel during work disputes and liability insurance for up $2 million.

"We want to be a voice in the area we're at," Allen said.

She said there are about 200 members in Southern Nevada who are members of PACCE's parent organization, the Association of American Educators, or AAE.

Allen said PACCE isn't a threat to the Clark County Education Association teachers union, which has about 12,000 members.

Heather Reams, associate director of AAE, said school employees can join PACCE or AAE for $180 per year. Reams said AAE has about 40,000 members in the nation, including 14 local chapters throughout the country.

Allen said she can envision a headquarters for PACCE being formed in Southern Nevada and the group having monthly meetings. She said that although other chapters from other states lobby on certain issues, PACCE has not yet set up a platform for issues because the group is new.