Switch is on to recharge schools

Second-grade instructor Jacob Berg was about to become another casualty of the teaching profession.

Fed up with low salaries and an emphasis on standardized tests, Berg decided that his 10th year of teaching in Southern Nevada would be his last.

That was before he spent a year at Culley Elementary School, one of four empowerment schools in the Clark County School District where principals and teachers get more say in school-based decisions.

The authority given to teachers at Culley made Berg re-evaluate his career plans.

"Within the first three months I decided to sign a contract for my second year," Berg said. "As long as we have empowerment schools, I'm not going anywhere."

Empowerment schools are one of the key educational initiatives coming out of the Legislature, which wrapped up its 2007 session this week. Other key initiatives include adding full-day kindergarten at more schools; teacher raises of 2 percent in the first year of the budget and at least 4 percent in the second; a pay-for-performance program for instructors; and funding for career and technical schools.

How did Clark County's public school system fare at the 2007 Legislature? Depends on who you ask.

"We made very little progress," said Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, vice president of the nonprofit Nevadans for Quality Education. "I would grade the session a 'D.' ... We should have started out talking about basic support. With an adequate per-pupil funding, we can move on to teacher shortages and full-day kindergarten."

The state increased its per-pupil funding from $4,696 in the current school year to $5,122 next year and $5,323 in the 2009-10 school year.

Parise-Malloy said those figures still rank near the bottom nationwide for state spending on students.

The Legislature allocated $2.3 billion in general fund money for education, about an 18 percent increase in spending from the past session.

Superintendent Walt Rulffes said there were significant gains in three areas: full-day kindergarten, empowerment schools and career and technical education.

"Those are all very positive improvements for education," Rulffes said. "But the areas that need attention are the teacher shortage and supplemental help for English language learners."

Rulffes said the pay raises for teachers won't be enough to decrease the teacher shortage. As one of the fastest-growing school systems in the country and the fifth-largest in the nation, the district has had to manage a shortage of about 400 teachers for the entire year.

The district also didn't get any state funding to assist students whose primary language isn't English, Rulffes said. Hispanics make up a majority of students in the district at nearly 117,500 students. Of those students, 55 percent are enrolled in the English Language Leaner Program because they struggle with English.

State superintendents were unified in requesting nearly $94 million for the program.

The district estimates it will be able to roll out full-day kindergarten at an additional 39 schools. The state allocated $15 million for the endeavor. There are 199 elementary schools in the district, and 71 have full-day kindergarten from state funding.

The state allocated $7 million for career and technical education schools. The district plans to open five of those by the 2009-10 school year. Such schools focus on getting students a head start in high-demand careers. District officials didn't know yet how much of the allocation they will receive for that program.

The district also estimates that it will be able to add a minimum of eight empowerment schools. The empowerment schools are expected to be added during the 2008-09 school year, giving district officials one year to plan for them. The state allocated $10 million for the program.

Maureen Peckman, director of the Council for a Better Nevada, said expanding the empowerment concept will be a catalyst for educational reform. "That's the type of change we need if we're going to appropriately reform the system," she said. "We have kids entering the public school system with very little hope or opportunity to prepare for the future. We have to get that hope back."

The state will allocate $400 more per student for empowerment schools. The district's four empowerment schools have a longer school day, by 29 minutes, and a longer school year, by five days. The district has allocated $600 more per student at those schools. The funds are used mainly to pay for the extra time instructors spend teaching.

Principals at the schools control their budgets instead of a central office doing so, and they allow teachers to determine programs that cater to a school's population.

Although teachers such as Berg said the extra autonomy has caused him to value his job more, other teachers questioned whether legislators valued teachers.

Peg Bean, a teacher at Ronzone Elementary School with two sons, a sister and a niece who also teach in the district, said the dismal salary increases won't attract or retain teachers, adding that she worries about how much longer her sons will stay in the field.

"I want them to love the profession, enjoy it and grow in the profession, but I don't know if they'll be able to." she said. "What happens when education becomes a profession we can no longer afford?"

Bean also wondered about one of the Legislature's initiatives lauded by educators and politicians: a $10 million pay-for-performance program.

District officials will negotiate with the local teacher's union to determine what the program will entail. But the program must reward in some fashion teachers who improve student performance.

"What do you base it on?" Bean asked of the program. "If I teach at a poor school and scores are lower at the school, am I a worse teacher?"