Memo outlines possible Clark County teacher layoffs

English teacher Mike Taack made it through just one year at Valley High School before his class was canceled because of budget cuts last spring.

Taack got lucky when he stumbled upon job openings at Fremont Middle School and was hired.

But Taack and hundreds of new teachers across the Clark County School District may soon face unemployment again, pushed out midyear before guiding their students on to the next grade.

The cash-strapped district, at an impasse with its teachers union over cost-saving measures, is bracing for about 1,000 possible layoffs of licensed staff. The ax will fall if an arbitrator sides with the Clark County Education Association, which has refused to grant $78  million in contract concessions over this year and next.

That leaves Taack on the brink of losing his job for the second time in half a year.

"Last year, it was demoralizing," he said. "I don't want to ride that roller coaster of ups and downs again."

Seniority would be the main factor in deciding who goes, said several principals who were tasked Wednesday with forming layoff plans at their schools.

But the fledgling teacher tries not to obsessively follow the battle between the union and the district.

"If you follow too closely, you'll give yourself an ulcer. I don't need that if I won't have health insurance," said Taack, who abandoned a career in insurance a few years ago to pursue a master's degree in his dream field, teaching.

The threat of layoffs has been hanging overhead since summer, but it now looms so near that Superintendent Dwight Jones met Wednesday with all 357 principals of the country's fifth-largest district. He gave them a memo outlining the number of positions that would need to be cut at each school based on the number of students.

Elementary schools would cut zero to three positions, middle schools zero to four and high schools zero to seven.

"When asked to do so, you will need to prepare your plan and submit your reductions in staffing to human resources," the memo reads.

This news shocked principals, who didn't clap as they usually do after the superintendent spoke.

"We were just sitting there in stunned silence," a high school principal said.

LAYOFFS OR SALARY BUMPS

Whether layoffs are needed depends on the outcome of arbitration. During the process, both sides in the stalemated talks are allowed to present their cases, with the arbitrator making a final decision on which proposal to enact. A decision could come in weeks or months.

The district proposed freezing teacher pay increases for experience and education during 2011-13 to balance the budget, but the union refuses to accept the freezes.

If the arbitrator sides with the union, the district would have a $39 million hole in this year's budget and another $39   million shortfall in 2012-13, officials have said. The district has said for months that if the pay freeze doesn't occur, layoffs would ensue to make up the money. The district is required by state law to have a balanced budget.

The longer the contract remains unsettled, the higher the number of job cuts that will be needed. The district said at the start of the school year that only 500 layoffs would be necessary, half of the current estimate. The increase is a result of the district sinking deeper into the red as it continues to pay for workers' step increases, district spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said.

The layoffs would equate to about a
6 percent reduction in the district's non-administrative licensed staff of 18,000 workers, who are mostly teachers.

PAYING BACK PAY RAISES

If the arbitrator finds for the district and enforces the pay freeze, teachers keep their jobs. But those who already have received raises this school year would have to give that money back.

That would hurt Robert Hollowood and his wife, Christina, who became parents this year. They're both teachers, and both received raises this year. Teachers earn raises by accumulating consecutive years in the district, continuing their education or doing both.

Robert, at Staton Elementary School in the northwest valley, received a seniority increase this year, which is a $1,000 to $2,000 bump in annual salary. Christina, at Sedway Middle School in North Las Vegas, earned credits beyond her master's degree and moved up in seniority, increasing her pay from $50,000 to $55,300.

They both have master's degrees, something teachers pay for out of their own pockets. Earning a master's degree costs about $10,000, but it's the only way for teachers to make more money, Robert said. The salary step scale is the most effective way to make continued education worthwhile.

Both said having to repay the raises they received this year would be a financial hardship.

No matter how the chips fall, the district will be worse off and teacher morale will suffer, a principal said.

"He (Superintendent Jones) said it himself at the meeting, 'I'm going to be looked at unfavorably either way,' " said the principal, who asked not to be identified.

But the district is to blame, said Ruben Murillo, president of the teachers union. Murillo cautioned district officials this summer against hiring new teachers if layoffs were imminent. But the district still started the year with 266 new teacher hires despite foundering contract negotiations.

"The district can't have it both ways," Murillo said.

Class sizes would increase

For seasoned teachers such as Erik Smith of Henderson's Galloway Elementary School, jobs may be safe, but there's more to it. If teachers are cut midway through the year, those children will still need teachers.

"The end result is going to be larger class sizes," a high school principal said. "End of story."

Smith now teaches a class of 32 fifth-graders. "We are packed as it is," he said.

Middle and high schools will be pinched the hardest. There, classes already have 40 or more students.

Smith and the Hollowoods perceive layoffs as an empty threat.

"This is the district putting the screws to the union as a scare tactic," Robert Hollowood said.

If so, it's working, said Cindy Johnson, a 27-year teacher at May Elementary School, near Torrey Pines Drive and Ann Road. The school has many high-performing teachers, she said, but colleagues have told her they're ready to leave when they find another paycheck, in teaching or not.

Johnson said, "They're afraid, they're frustrated, but mostly they're exhausted."

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