Center eases transition for area’s new teachers

Tuesday, July 30, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

Adam Patai admits it -- he's a little nervous about his first day at Mojave High School in North Las Vegas.

He knows he'll be the "new guy" when classes resume Aug. 26, wandering the unfamiliar hallways of a campus with more than 2,200 students -- four times the size of the private school he left back in northwest Indiana.

Patai has already made the drive several times from his new home near Summerlin, looking for the fastest route to Mojave.

After all, Patai said, teachers can't be late for school.

"Hopefully, it won't take me too long to feel like I fit in," Patai said Monday from the New Teacher Welcome Center at the school district's main offices. "I want the kids to know who I am, and I want to know them."

Patai is one of more than 1,600 new hires who will join the ranks of the school district's 14,000 teachers, spread out at 274 elementary, junior high and high schools. The welcome center, complete with cookies, maps and complimentary pens from the credit union, will be open through Aug. 12.

It's a chance for new teachers to talk to veterans, sign up for banking services and even find a place to live, said Karyn Wright, director of preservice development for the district.

The welcome center evolved over the years after administrators talked to new teachers about what resources might have eased their transition, Wright said. About two dozen new teachers showed up Monday at the second-floor conference room that had been converted to the welcome center, browsing binders full of "roommate wanted" listings, and brochures advertising discounts on rental furniture and apartments.

Patai, 31, says the promise of warm weather and proximity to friends and family lured him to Clark County.

For the past five years Patai has taught English at the same private high school he graduated from in Hammond, Ind., not far from Gary, Ind. He's joined by his wife, Kimberley, who traded a classroom in suburban Chicago for a special education post at Roy Martin Middle School in Las Vegas.

Impressed with the growth of the region and the many affordable, attractive housing communities, Patai said he and his wife intend to stay in the area and start a family.

"We plan on building a life here," Patai said.

That's exactly what George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district, wants to hear.

"We want teachers who will put down roots," Rice said. "We want them to see themselves as part of our community."

While the district's turnover rate has held steady at a respectable 6 percent for the past several years, that still means more than 1,500 new teachers to hire each year.

It's a daunting task, Rice concedes.

"We're interviewing applicants eight hours a day," Rice said. "We'll reach our goal, but that means showing a lot of hustle."