School officials ready to make calls

Monday, July 21, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

If the Legislature approves a budget today or Tuesday, Clark County School District officials say they'll celebrate by setting up a phone bank to call the hundreds of new teachers they want to hire for the start of the new school year just five weeks away.

But the party hats and balloons aren't out just yet, Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district, said.

"We've expected the legislators to finish their jobs on several occasions only to see them come up short," Orci said. "We'll believe when we see it."

District officials held a press conference Friday to announce the uncertainty over school funding could mean delays in the start of the school year, as well as cuts to programs and personnel.

The reassignment of 411 literacy and computer specialists, along with the gifted and talented education program teachers, to regular classrooms was also made permanent for the 2003-04 academic year.

Even if a budget were finalized today, the district's announcement Friday that personnel changes are set still holds, George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district, said.

"There has to be a point at which you have to change strategy," Rice said this morning. "Superintendent (Carlos) Garcia set (last) Friday at the end of the day as that point for us, and we're holding to that."

The district hires about 1,600 new teachers each year, with 70 percent coming outside Nevada. Rice said as soon as an agreement is reached in Carson City, she plans to find volunteers to man the phones and notify job candidates living in other states who may not have heard the news.

"Once the governor signs (the budget plan) we'll swing into action," Rice said. "We need to reassure all the people who have been reading the news on the Internet and say, 'Get your moving vans started.'th"

Garcia announced a hiring freeze June 17, saying job offers couldn't go out until the district knew there would be money to pay those salaries later.

The district, which hires about 1,600 new teachers each year, has seen a record number of rejections this time around. Of the more than 900 job offers that went out prior to the hiring freeze, 28 percent were turned down. In most other years the rejection rate is closer to 15 percent, Rice said.

That's why the district needs to do everything possible to hold on to the teachers who remain in the shrinking candidate pool, Rice said.

"We've got some terrific teachers who have stuck with us, but eventually they're going to take offers elsewhere," Rice said. "That's why every hour, every day matters. We need to get back on track now."

Gregory Richter of Chicago is one of those teachers waiting for word that the Legislature had passed a budget. Richter, a middle school science teacher, has been told by the school district he'll get a job offer as soon as the recruiting starts up again.

Richter and his wife, who has been accepted to the Graduate School of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had set last Friday as their deadline for hearing from the Clark County School District.

"We're trying to hold on a little longer, because moving to Las Vegas is still something we really want to do," Richter said this morning. "The sad thing is this mess has probably pushed a lot of people away, especially younger teachers just coming into the profession."

The district currently has 613 teacher positions to fill, a number that would jump to 1,013 if all of the specialists were returned immediately, Rice said.