The Association of Clovis Educators announced Tuesday that Clovis Unified’s American Sign Language Interpreters have signed up to join the union.

The interpreters sent their union petition to the district and the Public Employment Relations Board on Monday to be recognized as part of ACE, the union said in a news release.

The ASL interpreters’ highest priority is making communications and learning accessible for the hearing impaired but are challenged by limited resources and staffing shortages.

The 28 interpreters provide services for deaf and hard of hearing students at Garfield Elementary, Alta Sierra Intermediate, and Buchanan High, in the classroom as well as at rallies, sporting events, concerts, field trips, and graduation ceremonies, interpreter Sarah Maricle said in the news release.

“The role of Educational ASL Interpreters at CUSD is to bridge the communication gap between our DHH and hearing campus communities,” she said.

Second Group of Employees Represented by ACE

ACE won recognition as the union representative of the district’s 78 school psychologists and mental health service professionals after they filed a petition for representation in June 2021, about two months after the union started gathering signatures of the district’s 2,100 certificated employees.

Related Story: In ‘Historic’ Move, Clovis Unified Psychologists Agree to Form

But teachers, who are the majority of the district’s certificated employees, are still unrepresented by the union after several years of organizing efforts. If PERB grants the ASL interpreters’ petition, the union will represent about 5% of the certificated workforce.

ACE has come out the winner in a series of PERB decisions that found the district had unfairly supported the Faculty Senate as the unelected labor representative of teachers and other certificated employees in an attempt to discourage ACE’s organizing efforts

In June, PERB issued a cease-and-desist order requiring the district to disestablish the Faculty Senate. PERB’s order also required Superintendent Corrine Folmer to be videorecorded reading the cease-and-desist order and for that recording to be played at in-person teacher meetings.

The order also requires the district to eliminate from schools, websites, postings, and documents any reference to what has become known as the portion of “Doc’s Charge” that states “professionals who work in our district are proud that we do not have collective bargaining.””Doc’s Charge” was developed by founding superintendent Dr. Floyd “Doc” Buchanan.

Related Story: State Board Says Clovis Unified Violated Labor Laws, Must Disband Faculty

Although Clovis Unified teachers are not represented by a union, other employee groups have been represented by other unions for some time.