A bronze statue of smiling former Clovis Unified School District Superintendent Floyd “Doc” Buchanan, holding and leading two small children, stands on the campus of Buchanan High School.
JOHN WALKER
jwalker@fresnobee.com
A group of Clovis Unified educators seeking to form a union affiliated with the California Teachers Association filed an intervention petition with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), challenging the fairness and eligibility of its rival group’s union petition.
Known as the largest non-unionized school district west of the Mississippi River for its deep-rooted anti-union culture, Clovis Unified is at a turning point in its history. The district is closer than ever to establishing a union, after the Independent Clovis Unified Educators (ICUE), a group that aims to keep decision-making local and unaffiliated with any state or national union, gathered over a thousand teachers’ signatures and filed for union recognition with the PERB in July.
Latest developments reveal the union’s formation is pending a ruling by the PERB, as the Association of Clovis Educators (ACE) submitted an objection last week. Backed by a statewide teachers’ union with 310,000 members, ACE has been competing with ICUE for the past five years to become the exclusive representative of Clovis teachers. But ICUE was the first to announce that it had reached the threshold of 50% plus one signature from teachers.
In a press release, ACE called ICUE’s filing “suspicious” because the petitioner was not a local educator, but a partner of a private law firm based in Sacramento. The petition also listed Clovis Unified’s district headquarters as one of its mailing addresses, according to a copy of the petition provided by ACE.
“It’s deeply concerning to me that ICUE seems to be led by a private, for-profit law firm from behind a smokescreen with the same structure of ‘Faculty Senate’ which was legally required to disband for violating labor laws after being funded by the district to the tune of $610,000 from 2020 to 2022,” said Amy Kilburn, president of ACE and a second-generation educator in Clovis Unified.
Kilburn criticized ICUE for seeking to represent only full-time certificated teachers, excluding part-time teachers, preschool teachers, nurses, counselors, and other educators who perform their duties in classroom settings.
“This feels like more attempts by our historically anti-union school district administration to erode the only union in Clovis Unified that is led by local educators,” Kilburn said. “It begs the question of ICUE’s intent to fairly represent Clovis school teachers.”
Tony Silva, labor representative from Goyette, Ruano + Ulmer, the law firm hired by ICUE, told The Fresno Bee that ACE is using a tactic to spread discontent over ICUE excluding certain groups in an effort to sway those groups to support ACE instead.
Silva said ACE never hesitated to organize smaller unions when they obtain enough support for each job category.
Although no organization has ever obtained exclusive representation for Clovis teachers, in recent years, ACE has formed several small unions among district employees, such as school psychologists and American Sign Language interpreters.
“Now that ICUE has filed to represent the full-time teachers because that was the signatures they had, ACE/CTA want the spin that as if ICUE is not including other groups,” Silva said. “It is exactly this kind of toxic attitude, ‘Us vs. them,’ that ICUE wants gone.”
ICUE does desire to represent all certificated staff, but the process takes time, he said.
“Many staff still feel it is a betrayal of CUSD culture to join a bargaining group,” Silva added. “ICUE aims to guard wholeheartedly the culture of CUSD while still operating as a legally recognized representative body.”
Pending ruling on teachers’ unionization
Under the rules of PERB, a competing labor organization with proof of at least 30% of support among employees could file an intervention petition, thus forcing an election for employees to vote between the two unions, or for no union representation.
Since the two groups disagree on the range of employees covered by the bargaining unit, before the election can take place, however, PERB might first rule on the appropriateness of the unit, meaning who belongs to the organization and qualifies to vote, according to a PERB official.
California Government Code 3545 states that a teachers’ negotiating unit shall include all of the classroom teachers employed by the public school district, except management, supervisory, and confidential employees.
The PERB official declined to comment on the details because it’s an ongoing dispute, but told The Bee that the process could require a formal hearing with an administrative law judge and a decision by the PERB.
It is not uncommon for the PERB to handle disputes or intervention petitions.
Between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2026, PERB received 144 requests for representation of public school employers, which include school districts, charter schools, community colleges, and county offices of education. Intervention petitions were filed in four out of those 144 cases, according to PERB.
Besides educational institutions, PERB handles disputes and labor relations for a wide range of organizations, such as state governments, local public agencies, transit districts, and judicial and court systems.
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Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master’s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.