School District plans to add 900 employees

Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes announced plans Wednesday to spend the district's $54.2 million share of the federal Education Jobs Fund on hiring as many as 900 additional employees.

The new hires would include up to 500 teachers, 300 support staff positions, 50 maintenance workers and an undetermined number of school-based administrators.

The jobs should not be too hard to fill because the district already has 2,000 applications for 126 teaching vacancies at the elementary school level.

"I believe we could fill the 126 vacancies in elementary school very rapidly," said Martha Tittle, the district's chief human resources officer. "We have a lot of people waiting and hoping to get a job."

Officials expect to start hiring as early as Sept. 3 if Clark County School Board members approve the superintendent's recommendation for staffing all schools at 100 percent at a meeting on Sept. 2.

The district had restricted staffing to 97 percent of each school's projected need and raised class sizes in grades 1-3 to eliminate 540 teaching positions and 90 school-based administrator positions. The cuts were prompted by a budget shortfall of $140 million, which was created by state funding reductions and declining tax revenues.

Before President Barack Obama signed the legislation for the $10 billion federal Education Jobs Fund, the district had hired 430 new teachers for 2010-2011. A few years ago, when the economy was booming, the district was recruiting 2,000 to 3,000 new teachers annually from around the world.

This year, the supply of teachers "far exceeds the demand," Tittle said. Local college graduates are sufficient to meet the district's need for new elementary school teachers.

Teaching positions in subjects that have been hard to fill are not so much of a problem this year. Because the job market has become so competitive, the district now has just 15 teaching vacancies in high school math and 17 vacancies in high school science, Tittle said.

The district normally does not finalize school staffing until after it takes an official enrollment count, usually a month into the new school year. Officials project an enrollment of 309,126 this year, a decline of about 350 students from 2009-2010.

Schools that have declining enrollment typically lose workers to growing schools as part of a staffing adjustment made in late September or early October.

Officials are not expecting much relocation of staff this fall.

"I think there will be less disruption," Rulffes said. "The balancing process will be softened because the district won't have such tight staffing."

Rulffes said he is going to give latitude to principals in making their own hiring decisions and determining how to meet their particular school's needs.

Dominique Tetzlaff, a reading intervention specialist at Cortney Middle School, 5301 E. Hacienda Ave., near Nellis Boulevard, is hoping her school can reduce class sizes.

"I would love to see more teachers," she said. "It would definitely keep our numbers down in our classrooms. We would really be able to concentrate on having that one-on-one interaction with students."

Because it's late to be hiring staff, Cortney Principal David Rose is thinking about paying teachers extra money to give up their prep periods and teach additional classes. That would save him worry about having to eliminate a new teacher's job next year if no other funding is found to replace the federal jobs money.

Rulffes recognizes the Education Jobs Fund isn't a long-term solution to the financial shortfalls brought on by economic hard times.

The one-time funding is "easy come, easy go," he said.

Rulffes thinks the district probably could absorb the newly hired teachers next year because of employee turnover. The district typically loses about 1,000 teachers every year to retirements and resignations.

The superintendent was not so confident he could guarantee employment for newly hired support staff and school administrators next year.

"This federal money, while only a one-year reprieve, we hope will be a bridge to connect us to better financial times," Rulffes said.

As part of preparations for the new school year, school officials urge the public to visits the district website, www.ccsd.net., for back-to-school information about bus transportation and the free and reduced lunch program.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.