School Board weighs Moore’s plan for tutors, home for TV station

Valerie Miller

Wednesday, June 7, 2000 | 10:13 a.m.

Locating the area's public television station at the proposed Nevada State College and supplying student tutors to classrooms are key parts of Richard Moore's plan to lessen the chronic schoolteacher shortage in the Las Vegas Valley.

Moore, president of the college that still needs funding approval from the 2001 Legislature to get started, says KLVX Channel 10 could fit in well with the curriculum for students planning to be teachers.

And he sees his teaching students fanning out to classrooms as reading tutors.

While some Clark County School Board members support Moore's plan, at least one, Lois Tarkanian, is critical.

But Moore plans to weather any criticism, saying turning out schoolteachers will be one of the chief missions of the state college proposed for 300 acres in Henderson.

"Every year, the Clark County School District needs 1,500 to 1,700 new teachers," Moore said. "We will start with 400 freshmen students. I see a good percentage of those students becoming teachers."

Moore is planning on the state college opening in temporary facilities in fall 2001. The enrollment is expected to grow to 1,000 by its second school year, 2001-2002.

School district officials complain each year that they must recruit nationwide in order to fill teaching positions. Increasing the local pool of applicants would save recruiting expenses and help fill the positions that invariably go unfilled.

"As of the start of the school year last September, there were 140 vacant teaching positions that were filled by substitute teachers," said Don Eldfrick, executive director of human resources for the school district. That number of vacant positions actually increased by one by the end of the school year, he said.

As of January, the school district employed 12,913 permanent teachers and 2,500 substitute teachers, Eldfrick said. The substitutes are used to fill the vacant positions as well as fill short-term vacancies, such as when a teacher calls in sick.

Eldfrick emphasized the importance of producing teachers locally.

"We in the school district would welcome an increase in local teacher training and talent to recruit from," Eldfrick said. "Recruiting teachers from out of state is hard and expensive."

Creating that local teacher base is exactly what Moore wants to do.

His pitch for the public TV station includes the fact that student teachers could produce distance education shows that could be used by the school district. Moore said it would also create a natural bond between local students and the school district, which holds the station's license and provides its management.

The college is only one of several potential sites for Channel 10, which must move from its current studio because it's converting to digital technology, which occupies more space.

"I think the Legislature would look favorably on Channel 10 working with the new state college," said Assemblyman Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, who serves on the legislative advisory committee studying the state college.

And Moore says teaching students also could be used as reading tutors in the lower elementary grades.

"We would ask each student to give 10 hours a week," Moore said. "This would allow students to both learn and teach."

School Board members are split in their assessment of Moore's ideas about the TV station and student tutoring.

Members Sheila Moulton and Ruth Johnson said they are undecided on the TV station but like the idea of student tutors going into classrooms.

"I think it is certainly worthy for students to get training early on," Moulton said, adding that the arrangement will be beneficial for both students and the school district.

Johnson said Moore's tutoring plan sounds like it will produce teachers who may be more prepared for their careers and who will be motivated to stay on beyond their first year, a time when many teachers move into other fields.

Tarkanian, though, sees potential for problems.

"The primary objective of anything we do is to benefit the students in the classroom. I wouldn't be opposed to the (tutoring) plan as long as it doesn't take away the time teachers should be devoting to students," she said.

"In classrooms, teachers must have time to teach, but if the tutoring was done after school or on breaks, it would be fine."

Tarkanian also sees a problem with Channel 10 being located in a city -- Henderson -- that may some day break away from the school district. A petition is being circulated for presentation to the Legislature, asking that cities with 125,000 or more people be allowed to have their own school districts.

"I would have to see the benefits for Channel 10 to be located at the state college," Tarkanian said. "With deconsolidation, it might be difficult to teach students from one school district when the station is in another district."

Additional criticism comes from Gene Hall, UNLV's dean of the College of Education. The university has been criticized by the school district and Moore for not producing enough teachers. Hall said Moore may have underestimated realities associated with turning out teachers.

"There is no waiting list of hundreds of people who want to be teachers and can't," Hall said. "UNLV has not turned away any prospective education students."

Hall also questioned the quality of the teachers the state college will produce in light of Moore's plan to educate students at a lower cost. Moore plans on having the instructors spend more time teaching classes and less time on research. Hall said that this will lead to less prepared teachers.

"You will have instructors who are not teaching the most up-to-date teaching methods," Hall said. "We would put our graduates against their graduates anytime, and ours will come out on top."

UNLV graduated close to 600 teachers last year and expects to graduate 700 this year, Hall said. He blames the teacher shortage in the Las Vegas Valley as part of the overall national shortage.

"Teaching is a tough job," Hall said. "It is hard to attract teachers here too because of low starting salaries in a city where someone can make more money with more benefits waiting tables at a buffet."

The average starting salary for a teacher with a four-year degree in the Clark County School District is $26,847, according to the district's licensed personnel division.

"The Nevada State College won't make any difference," Hall said.

Clark County School District Superintendent Brian Cram, however, said the problem of teacher shortages is too great not to listen to new ideas.

"We desperately need teachers and we can't keep doing the same old, same old," Cram said.