Clark County School District’s new teachers face uncertainty

Two teachers sit at a circular concrete table, joking about the security of their new jobs in the Clark County School District, while 296 other new teachers eat during a break from orientation.

"I teach math, so I'm safe," said Michael O'Brien, who knows from experience that new district teachers are hit first during layoffs, but math, science and special education teachers are hard to find and therefore protected. The district is still looking for 350 teachers for these high-demand areas and also needs to fill elementary school openings, officials say.

"I teach art," Kevin Calkins replied Thursday, "so I'm screwed."

He chuckled, but the lighthearted comments at the district's annual new teacher orientation are a little different after a year of budget upheaval that ended in layoffs. High-demand teachers in subjects such as math feel more secure than their colleagues in other subjects.

In June, the district laid off 400 teachers and didn't replace 600 teachers who resigned or retired to cover the cost of mandatory teacher pay raises. The district rehired the last of the laid-off teachers last week, something made possible after twice as many teachers resigned as expected. After doing so, the district still had to fill 200 vacancies created by resignations.

Although the laid-off teachers were rehired, the 1,000 positions cut in June remain eliminated, which increases average district class sizes by three students. But the three-day new teacher orientation at West Career Technical Academy wasn't spent dwelling on instability, said Meg Nigro, the district's director of teacher induction.

"We're not talking about that at all," said Nigro, emphasizing that orientation's theme is "Ignite Learning," getting teachers excited about their first batch of students and not worrying about what they can't control.

Teacher raises were preserved earlier this year after the district and the Clark County Education Association entered arbitration. The district again has declared an impasse in negotiations with the teachers union over working terms for the 2012-13 school year, but the parties are still holding closed-door meetings.

If layoffs are repeated, the district must adhere to the last hired, first fired policy outlined in the teacher contract, except in high-demand areas such as math, science and special education. The district still needs to fill 350 openings in those areas.

Most of the new teachers at the orientation are filling high-demand spots, and are from local universities, such as University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nigro said.

That didn't used to be the case.

In the past, the district hired 2,000 to 3,000 new teachers each summer for all subject areas to keep up with student growth. Teachers were recruited from across the country, and the district often fell short. During the era of the district's rapid expansion, the first day of school began with as many vacancies as are being added in total this year.

Student enrollment has flatlined at 308,000, and the district now simply advertises openings, Nigro said.

The rehired teachers weren't required to attend orientation. O'Brien's attendance was mandatory, though he had taught in Clark County for five years and is returning to Palo Verde High School. That is because he left for more than one school year, which means he is back at the bottom of the seniority list.

That experience is why he knows how the layoff game is played and isn't worried about district instability. When the district approved him for hire, he received at least 15 phone calls from principals needing math teachers, he said.

His new friend Calkins realizes art teachers aren't in such high demand. But he's embracing the "Ignite Learning" mantra.

"I just love the fact that I have a full-time teaching job and a salary," he said. Up until Tuesday, he was working part-time at Home Depot, grabbing any hours he could. On Wednesday, he started his first official teaching job at Guy Elementary School in North Las Vegas.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at
tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.