District short 363 teachers

The Clark County School District will begin the school year Monday short at least 363 teachers, a shortfall district officials attribute largely to the rapid growth of the Las Vegas Valley.

Recruiters have been working since mid-June to reduce a shortage that was then more than 1,100. But with 11 new schools opening and an estimated 11,640 more students expected to pour into the nation's fifth-largest school system on Monday, the challenge was great, district officials said.

"We're still at a point where we were last year, but we have 11 new schools to fill," said Martha Tittle, the district's chief human resources officer. The school system began the 2006-07 school year short 344 teachers.

"By the time Monday comes, hopefully, we'll be at or below 344," she said.

But Tittle said of the 363 vacancies, only 116 are classroom positions in elementary through high school.

That includes 93 classroom vacancies at middle and high schools, and 23 in elementary schools.

Teacher vacancies will be filled by substitutes.

Tittle said the remaining vacancies outside of classrooms are licensed employees who are lumped in the teacher category but work in specialty areas in schools such as psychologists, nurses and special education facilitators, who coordinate special education programs.

Most of the classroom vacancies are in the areas of math, science and special education, Tittle said.

Superintendent Walt Rulffes said Monday that even though new schools are being built at an unparalleled rate, the district still doesn't keep up with the county's immense growth.

"We still have many schools that are in need of repair and schools that are overcrowded," Rulffes said at Booker Elementary School, one of two new replacement schools included in the 11 new schools opening next week. "The demand for new schools continues."

Rulffes said parents should be encouraged because most classrooms will have a qualified teacher leading students.

Tittle said the district's vacancy total is only a small percentage of the 18,000 licensed employees who work for the school system.

She said the teacher shortage is a perpetual problem that the district probably will never reduce to zero.

But Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, vice president of the nonprofit Nevadans for Quality Education, said every vacant classroom position in middle and high school is critical. She said one instructor at a high school can lead up to about 2,000 students a day.

The education advocacy group has about 200 paying members statewide.

"How can we expect our students to pass the proficiency exam if they don't have a qualified teacher to lead them?" Parise-Malloy asked.

High school students must pass the math, reading and writing portions of the state's proficiency exam in order to earn a diploma. During the upcoming school year, sophomores and subsequent classes will also have to pass a science exam.

Parise-Malloy said the main problem facing the district is a low starting pay of only $33,000 for new teachers. She said teachers can go to other school systems with a higher starting pay and fewer challenges.

"Why would they choose to work here when they can work somewhere else with less hassle and more money?" Parise-Malloy said.

But Patricia Luther, a 69-year-old teacher who said she holds proper accreditations to teach science and special education, said the district's teacher shortage is compounded by internal bureaucratic hurdles. Luther worked for the district for 17 years until summer 2004, and she recently resigned from a local private school in June so she could teach in the district again.

Luther said she tried for four days to get hired in the school system this month, but its application process made her research questions such as what her graduate and undergraduate grade-point averages were.

"I'm just insulted by the petty bureaucracy," Luther said. "I worked there for 17 years. They had everything, and yet I had to go and research all this stuff.

"I thought, 'The heck with this.' "

Luther said she instead will work for a private school in Las Vegas where she was able to fill out an application, interview and get hired all in one day.

Tom Whelan, 46, who said he is on his third career path, has had a different experience. Whelan, a former college professor who most recently worked as a physical fitness trainer, will begin work at Cheyenne High School on Monday with his wife, Karen, who also is a new teacher in the district.

Whelan will work under a provisional license. He will have to take required classes for three years in order to get a fully endorsed teacher license.

Karen Whelan, who will teach art at Cheyenne, chose to take a refresher course in classroom management but holds the proper teaching credentials from when she taught art in Pennsylvania 20 years ago, she said.

Tom Whelan said he's ecstatic that he and his wife are able to re-enter the teaching field.

"We saw it as a golden opportunity to get into teaching at a time when they needed teachers," Whelan said.