20% of teachers transfer in Clark County

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Every April Clark County's teachers play an elaborate game of musical chairs, looking for new seats behind desks in other area schools.

About 20 percent of the Clark County School District's 14,000 teachers take part in the annual transfer season, a rate significantly higher than other communities nationwide, educators say.

District officials and administrators say the high teacher transience doesn't hurt the quality of education in Clark County, although some parents believe otherwise. What they seem to agree on, however, is that as long as the school district's enrollment continues to soar, it's a teachers' market.

The high teacher transiency rate can be traced in part to the district's rapid growth. With 12 to 14 new schools opening each year, and a growing shortage of educators nationwide, teachers already working for the district have their choice of assignments.

District officials usually choose a seasoned principal to open the new campus -- a plum assignment used to reward the most outstanding administrators. The principal, who leaves the old school in March to prepare for August opening, is allowed to recruit several members of the old school to teach at the new when it opens. At the old school someone else is named principal, which sets off another chain of transfers.

For example, in North Las Vegas Linda Reese left Lincoln-Edison Elementary School in March for Antonello Elementary School. Reese replaced Andrea Klafter Phillips, who was chosen to open the Cozine Elementary School in the northwest region.

Celeste Oakes, who took over as Lincoln-Edison's principal a month ago, said she expected some of the teaching staff she inherited would follow Reese to Antonello, just as some of the Antonello staff would likely follow Klafter Phillips to Cozine.

"It's the nature of our district, I'm not taking the transfers personally," said Oakes, who had been an assistant principal in the district's instruction unit.

Some parents say they're troubled by the domino effect.

Moises Denis, whose two sons are students at Hyde Park Middle School's math and sciences academy, said he worried that the school's core staff would be gutted when Patricia LaMonica left her post as principal to open a new school.

"When there's a lot of teacher turnover, it can't help but have an impact on the quality of the instruction," said Denis, who is treasurer of the Nevada PTA. "I know it's tough for the kids to get used to someone new, and tough for the replacement teachers that come in."

Denis said he was optimistic that new Hyde Park Principal James Kuzma, who took over in January, would be able to keep the top teachers who help make the school's programs so successful.

"So far it looks like he's doing a good job keeping everyone happy," Denis said.

The district's voluntary teacher transfer season begins in April, when the list of job openings for the coming school year is posted. Teachers already working for the district get first crack at the list and apply directly to the principal of the school where they wish to transfer.

Teachers who have been out on leave are next in line for the vacancies, George Ann Rice, assistant superintendent ofhuman resources for the district, said. Once that pool is exhausted, district officials start making offers to new teachers, Rice said.

David Price, principal of Cox Elementary School, who also recruits for the district, said the high teacher transfer rate isn't necessarily a negative factor. Each principal has a unique administrative style, and for teachers switching schools can mean an opportunity to grow professionally, Price said.

Those opportunities help keep the district's turnover rate at a fairly steady 6 percent, a lower rate than the district would have if it couldn't regularly offer teachers new challenges, Price said.

At the same time Price conceded that schools can find it difficult to build a core staff with similar agendas when teachers change jobs frequently.

Price has felt some of that uncertainty lately. One of his assistant principals will become principal of her own school in August and will likely take some of the staff from Cox with her, Price said.

"These are really good people I hate to lose," Price said Friday. "But I also believe you can build loyalties, and if someone really wants to work for you, they will."

At Lamping Elementary School in Henderson, where the principal was assigned in March to open a new school, many parents worried about the effect it would have on their children's learning, Mary Meininger, president of the school's PTA, said. However, the transition to the new principal has been smooth and many of the teachers have decided to stay on for the coming school year, Meininger said.

"I think the whole process was more nerve-wracking for the parents than for the kids," Meininger said.