‘I like the kids:’ CCSD teacher logs 52 years in classroom

Sometimes when science teacher Pennie Edmond wakes up early to get to Bonanza High School by 6 a.m. to prepare for the school day, she thinks, “Why am I doing this?”

Beyond the money, the answer is simple: “I like the kids.” She even misses interacting with them over the summer.

Edmond, 74, has been teaching in the Clark County School District for 52 years. She’s the longest-serving teacher working in the district, which has about 18,000 licensed employees.

She found out last year that she had reached that milestone.

As she had watched others retire, she knew she “was climbing the hill,” she said.

Her longevity has caught the eye of school district officials. On the first day of school on Aug. 8, Superintendent Jesus Jara told reporters that he had the opportunity to meet the most senior educator in the district during an event at Bonanza.

Amid a nationwide teacher shortage — which is affecting Clark County — and as more teachers leave the profession or enter as a second career through an alternate path to licensure, instead of straight out of college, it’s becoming rarer for educators to stay on the job for many decades.

Edmond has been teaching in the school district since 1970 and has been at Bonanza since it opened in 1976. She’s among three generations in her family who have graduated from district campuses.

Edmond, a Rancho High School alumna, had her own two children go through Bonanza: Her daughter graduated in 1994 and her son in 1999. And her granddaughter graduated in May from the school.

Over the years, though, Edmond never had her children or granddaughter in her classes.

The main thing that has changed about students since she started teaching at Bonanza: “phones, mostly,” she said, referring to cellphones. “They live on the phone.”

Describing her teaching style, Edmond said, “I’m more laid back, I think, than most teachers” — at least most of the time.

‘Let’s get to work’

During one of her physical science classes Tuesday, Edmond sat at a table in the middle of the classroom with a pile of trash on top.

“This is how much came out of the trash can in this room yesterday,” she told her students.

The lesson was about which items could be recycled. A portion of the assignment called for students to go through a trash can at home.

Edmond suggested that her students avoid bathroom trash cans.

“There are things in there you don’t want to touch,” she noted.

As students worked on their assignment, she told at least one to remove earbuds and another that it wasn’t time for sleeping.

“OK, let’s get to work,” she said.

One of her students, 15-year-old sophomore LaRon Evans, said his teacher is “cool” as long as students pay attention and do their work.

“She seems very experienced,” he said. “I know that.”

LaRon said his teacher seems to have everything planned out. She also seems to have eyes everywhere and knows what students are doing, he said.

Senior Keyaira Washington, 17, said she likes Edmond as a teacher, describing her as “really nice” and “a little strict” due to how loud students are in her physical science class.

Washington said she likes more hands-on work, so Edmond is a great teacher for her. She also said she likes how her teacher breaks down concepts in a good way.

On the whiteboard in Edmond’s classroom on Tuesday, a list was displayed of students who were celebrating birthdays that week and which class period they’re in.

The walls of her classroom are lined with posters — some covering scientific topics such as the greenhouse effect and periodic table of elements. Others — some of which are crinkled or fading with age — are of tigers and whales, while some have inspirational sayings about life or quotes about science.

One poster shows the cartoon character Garfield holding up a sign that says, “Thank you for not whining.” Another says, “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”

College and university pennants are displayed from schools such as UNLV and Oregon’s Portland State University.

Pathway to the classroom

After moving to Las Vegas at age 17 from California, Edmond graduated from Rancho High. She said she loved the school.

She’s also a UNLV alumna who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She later earned a master’s degree in education.

After graduating with a science degree, she thought she’d work within the industry at a nuclear test site, but she said they wanted someone to do secretarial work.

“I might be female, but I’m not a secretary,” she said.

Instead, the school district hired her right away, even though she had a couple of summer classes left before graduating from UNLV.

Edmond previously taught at a handful of campuses, including Brinley Middle School, and taught math for a brief period before staying for the long term at Bonanza. Now, she teaches physical science and a Robotics II class.

She retired about 12 years ago but was rehired shortly thereafter. And after her husband died, she said, she decided to keep working.

Edmond said she doesn’t think she’ll be teaching for much longer. But every day — much like she has for five decades — she arrives early to get ready before the first group of students sets foot in her classroom.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com.