Friday, May 11, 2001 | 6:02 a.m.
Summer heats up, school winds down and, for the past few years, the same cycle seems to repeat itself: Schoolteachers prepare to leave town on airplanes, in cars or moving vans heading to new states, new jobs and most often better pay.
At the same time, fresh graduates with unspent energy get ready to dress in their black robes and mortarboards, receive their degrees and replace those who have left.
That cycle has taken on significance this spring as the debate over teacher shortages, training and classroom pay gets louder in Carson City.
For many of UNLV's spring graduates, such as Nikki Bylina, the decision to become a teacher doesn't hinge on financial reasons, but on matters of the heart.
"My teacher read 'Where the Red Fern Grows' to the class. When it got to the end, he was crying," 21-year-old Bylina said. "I remembered that, and it made me want to have that effect on students, too."
Bylina, along with friends Christine Rozelle, 21, and Bianca Wood, 22, are among several of Saturday's graduates who aren't leaving Las Vegas. The three have known each other since eighth grade and have decided that roots are stronger than money. But low pay is driving two-year teaching veteran Janet Miller from Las Vegas and Frank Lamping Elementary School. It was a hard decision, but an economic necessity, she said.
"I look here, and (teachers) are struggling financially. A lot of teachers have to buy their own supplies," Miller said. "I thought about whether the teachers were going to be able to get raises any time in the future, and I don't see how that's going to happen."
Miller moved to Boulder City in 1997 and decided to make education her second career. She returned to UNLV to get her teaching degree, then joined the Clark County School District. The choice to leave her $27,000-a-year job at Lamping Elementary came after teacher pay in her home state of Texas was increased.
In the seemingly endless revolving door of teachers, Miller's job will more than likely be filled by a fellow alumni.
Of the 500 teachers who have resigned this year, 135 are moving to other states, according to the school district.
Of the more than 242 newly certified teachers who graduated from UNLV on Saturday, with 139 more to follow this summer, most are expected to land in Clark County schools.
Gene Hall, dean of UNLV's College of Education, says the number of students deciding to start their careers in Las Vegas is high.
"One of the things that's amazing to me is the amount of teachers who do stay in Las Vegas," Hall said.
UNLV's rate of in-state teacher placement is more than twice the national average, he said. Clark County schools hire an average 400 to 500 UNLV graduates per year.
The exodus from teaching seems to happen for most individuals within just a few years, as it did for Miller.
UNLV and the district don't keep track of where local graduates go after their first job. But a recent study by the local teacher's union found the district loses 30 to 35 percent of its teachers within seven years. Low pay was the top reason given for quitting.
The system won't likely change, given pending state budget cuts. While Gov. Kenny Guinn is committed to a 2 percent cost-of-living increase, the budget is probably won't include raises that make salaries competitive with other states, he has said.
Poor salaries -- starting at $26,847 -- also make it difficult to attract new graduates. UNLV students are being courted by other states that can pay more.
The school district already has been rejected by hundreds of candidates, Superintendent Carlos Garcia said last week. "In 99.9 percent of the cases, they told us our salaries stink."
For the first time out-of-state recruiters set foot on the Maryland Parkway campus to entice graduates to their schools.
California, for example, launched a $9.2 million CalTeach ad campaign to draw teachers there. UNLV's student newspaper, the Rebel Yell, ran seven ads that featured picturesque redwoods, smiling teachers and the message, "In California, you can teach where the redwoods soar -- along with the hearts and minds of children in your classroom."
"We were quite concerned about that," said George Ann Rice, assistant superintendent of human resources for Clark County School District. "No one has ever come into our area and tried to woo away students before."
The effect of such aggressive efforts won't be tallied until summer's end, Rice said.
But early figures indicate that the number of teaching graduates applying to Clark County schools is down by 50 students, according to Eileen McGarry, UNLV career services director.
The district has received about 325 applications this year from UNLV students, with another 100 expected to apply after the summer session.
To stem the flow of departures, a new school district program is focusing on retaining first-year teachers, according to Karyn Wright, director of pre-service development and new induction.
The tide of teachers leaving is slowly ebbing, Wright said. Since last year, the district has retained 92 percent of its new teachers, excluding retirements, deaths and medical leave, she said.
"What we have found over the past couple of years is that teachers are happy here, and many of them are staying rather than leaving," Wright said. "It does depend a lot on the teacher's first-year experience if they stay."
The program's success has Garcia is thinking about extending it.
Another factor in the teacher shortage is the inability to persuade enough high school students to major in education in the first place because of the field's reputation for low pay, Hall said.
The district is even trying to recruit within the community. A new flier being sent home with students tries to entice mothers into becoming teachers.
UNLV's teaching program has "a great deal of difficulty recruiting," McGarry said. "They basically have room and just can't seem to recruit enough."
Despite waning incentive to enter the field, the proposed Nevada State College at Henderson has made one of its missions teacher education, a move viewed skeptically by some at UNLV.
"If you can't recruit enough into the profession, another college isn't going to generate enough interest," McGarry said.
But college backers said they hope that if more options in education are available, the students will follow. Hall says that his program does have several older students who are coming to the program for reasons other than money.
Rod Knudson, 47, is a retired Army officer who settled in Las Vegas because he wanted to live in a metropolitan area with a university.
"I have my military retirement to fall back on," said Knudson, who graduated Saturday. "I always wanted to teach, so I get to do something fun now."
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