Teacher shuffle: A problem for parents, students, staff

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 11:23 a.m.

Fifth grader Alexandra Duncan wasn't crazy about getting a new teacher after school had started this year. Her school, Cartwright Elementary, was one of dozens in the district that added new teachers and created new classrooms to keep up with growth.

"I was upset," Alexandra said. "I'd grown attached to my teacher. I didn't want to be in a portable. My friends had said it was hot and you didn't have much room to move around."

Moving teachers from school-to-school -- and hiring new teachers to keep up with growth -- is a fact of life this time of year in the fast-growing Clark County School District.

The process can be initially traumatic for students and parents who worry that ripping a student from familiar surroundings and dropping them in a newly created classroom can ultimately affect how the children perform at school.

Parent Crystal Hadobas pleaded with school officials and eventually convinced them not to move her fifth grade daughter to another class at Cartwright.

"I begged -- I brought cookies," said Hadobas, who also substitute teaches at the school. "Most of the teachers being added are first-year teachers. My daughter really needed a teacher with experience to prepare her for junior high."

District officials each spring make enrollment projections to place teachers for the following school year.

By the end of September, officials count the students who actually showed up at each school, and shift teachers accordingly.

This year, just 19 teachers were pulled from schools that had too many teachers. The district placed them -- and about 60 other new hires -- in schools with more students than expected.

"Any change for families, parents and kids can create some turmoil," said Beth Sylvester, director of teacher placement for the district. "But if anything, we should be thankful we are adding teachers. It's easier to gain than to to lose somebody."

At Cartwright Elementary, in a booming southern area of the valley, the district has added 18 teachers since last spring -- doubling the size of the school's staff.

"I'm now a personnel department," said Cartwright principal Emily Aguero.

The new school opened with 330 students in January and exploded to 660 by June. The school was projected to have 670 students in August, but now has 990.

Bill Freeman, one of the new teachers at Cartwright, officially began his duties as a physical education teacher on Wednesday. The native of Bottineau, N.D., population 3,000, moved to Las Vegas last week.

On Wednesday, he was leading a class of 40 third graders through a game of flag football.

"The only reason I'm here is that the school was adding teachers during the year," Freeman said.

New teachers who lead classes full of refugees from other rooms say the students quickly get over their anxiety.

"They realize that we are a class now," said Risa Shapiro, whose new fifth grade class includes Alexandra Duncan and students from four other fifth grade rooms. "They don't consider themselves Mrs. Flanagan's class or Mrs. Stewart's class anymore."

School officials say that teacher shifts are not likely to dissipate in the coming years. Officials predict record growth will continue in Las Vegas in the years to come.

School officials are expected to announce the county's official student enrollment count on Monday, with a special recognition of the district's 200,000th student.

Meanwhile, students at schools that are adding new teachers say they are adjusting. Principals and teachers say the parents sometimes have a harder time with change than students.

"He cried when we first discussed it," Hadobas said of her third grade son. The boy did not escape being moved to a new classroom, unlike his fifth grade sister. "Now he seems to be OK with it."