BURLINGAME – Today, in the last large school district in California without a union for certificated educators, a supermajority of school psychologists and mental health support providers (MHSPs) voted to join the Association of Clovis Educators, affiliated with the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. The Public Employment Relations Board announced the vote at its Sacramento headquarters today.

Forty-nine of the 71 voters, or 69 percent, voted for ACE/CTA/NEA, while 16 voters, or 23 percent, voted for a competing union. Only six voters, or seven percent, voted for no union. Eighty-one school psychologists were eligible to vote.

This overwhelming victory by Clovis psychologists was the result of organizing efforts that took place during the pandemic. Clovis psychologists and MHSPs used Zoom meetings, phone calls, Facebook, Instagram and texting, emails, and podcasts and good old-fashioned conversations to build support and participation in their union.

California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd, a kindergarten educator, released the following statement in response to the union victory today:

“We know that our students are best served when our educators are empowered to use their voices and educational expertise on behalf of the students they serve. We congratulate the Association of Clovis Educators and the school psychologists and mental health support providers for their hard work and their union victory today and cheer them as they begin negotiating their first contract. There is a union renaissance going on all over this country and we see the evidence right here in Clovis. We cheer this first victory as part of larger organizing efforts now underway for the 2,100 educators in the district.”

– E. Toby Boyd

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The 310,000-member CTA is affiliated with the 3 million-member National Education Association.