Clintondale teachers, supporters protest lack of contract

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Clintondale Community Schools faculty, joined by supporters and faculty from other Macomb County school districts, picketed outside of the district’s May 12 Board of Education meeting at Clintondale High School.

They were there to protest the lack of a contract between the Clintondale Education Association and the district. The picket comes 253 days after the last contract expired on Aug. 30, 2024, and after 60 of the district’s 102 faculty members have left their positions.

“For 19 years we’ve only had two years without a concession,” said Mike Ward, CEA president and a Clintondale teacher of 27 years. “For 17, when the district needed concessions the most, these people gave 6% back, gave 4% back; they didn’t move along the salary schedule.”

Ward says the “culture of concession” that has been present in the district has been the driving force behind the district’s exodus of professional staff. Departures have not only included teaching professionals: They have also left the district without a special education director, which has required loaned support from Macomb Intermediate School District. The district also lost its school psychologist and is down on social workers and speech pathologists.

“A consistent revolving door of professionals doesn’t serve kids the best,” Ward said. “So, what do we have to do? We have to organize (and) raise our voice. Not only to advocate for ourselves, but our students.”

After well over 250 days and nearly an entire school year of working without a contract, Ward says the union has filed unfair labor practice charges with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission against the district, which he expects will be heard in Wayne County sometime by the end of May. Ward says the complaints claim the district is not bargaining fairly, has not been responsive to proposals from the union and has drawn out proposing additional dates to meet.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Ward said. “They have a fund balance (and) it’s 253 days later, playing around at the bargaining table, and we’re out here saying it’s got to end.”

Clintondale Superintendent Kenneth Janczarek did not immediately have comments on the unfair labor claims and said he had not yet read them.

“We have to look at the unfair labor practices and what they are,” Janczarek said. “They have a right to file them. Now whether they’re actual unfair labor practices, that’s a whole (other) conversation that will take place when we meet next time.”

Janczarek says the district and union have met 20 times during this negotiation cycle with the first meetings taking place at the start of the school year. The last meeting occurred on April 30. Janczarek echoed that there have been issues finding time to meet due to the schedules of the district and union bargaining units.

“We continue to go to the table, we continue to offer proposals, we continue to offer movement and we’re not at a point right now where we have an agreement,” Janczarek said.

“That’s negotiations, that happens, and we have to continue to go to the table … We need to make sure that we’re offering a contract because they deserve a contract — absolutely, a fair contract — but we also have to make sure that we’re making the right decisions for the district. We have to make sure that we’re fiscally responsible.”

Clintondale faculty were supported at the picket and during the meeting by other educators from Michigan Education Association Local 1, with signs indicating support from Lakeview, Chippewa Valley, Warren Woods and L’Anse Creuse faculty, among other supporters. Support also came from the very top of the MEA with its president, Chandra Madafferi, speaking during the board meeting’s public comment period. State Rep. Denise Mentzer, D-Mount Clemens, of the 61st Michigan House district, joined faculty in the picket along Little Mack Avenue and gave remarks prior to the meeting.

“Someday I’m not going to do this state rep gig … I’ll be older than dirt,” Mentzer said. “Who do I want to take my place? I want somebody that knows the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics. Somebody that knows the difference between North and South Korea. Somebody that can pick Borneo out on a map. You know where that comes from? Good public school teachers. We need to back our teachers, we need to appreciate the things that they’ve done, and we need to be out here supporting them. And you know what … they need a contract, and they need it now.”

Along with the protest and unfair labor practice filings, the CEA is undertaking a letter and emailing campaign to the Clintondale school board.