Role of specialist teachers will be known by July 15

Dan Kulin

Friday, June 27, 2003 | 11:48 a.m.

Clark County School District specialist teachers who have been assigned to regular classrooms because of uncertainty over the K-12 budget will be sent back to their previous assignments if the state Legislature passes a schools budget by July 15, Superintendent Carlos Garcia said Thursday.

School officials had said July 1 was the deadline for sending the 411 literacy and technology specialists, and Gifted and Talented Education program instructors back to the jobs they had last school year.

But Garcia said Thursday that the July 1 date was identified as the deadline because it is the beginning of the next fiscal year. However, a closer look at exactly how long the district could wait to hire hundreds of new teachers showed the district could wait two weeks after that, he said.

"The drop dead day for us is July 15," Garcia said. "If it is resolved before then we can put them all back where they want to be."

Beginning a hiring push on July 15 would give the district just over a month to find at least 411 new teachers to fill the spots the specialists have been assigned to, he said

While legislators wrestle with propose tax increases that are linked to the K-12 budget, the uncertainty over the outcome of the budget battle has left school officials wary of hiring new teachers. The district has opted to leave nearly 1,000 positions open for the coming school year, and has filled 411 of them with the specialist teachers.

Garcia said that decision was made because the top priority for the district is to have teachers in all classrooms at the beginning of the school year.

School Board member Susan Brager-Wellman said she's hopeful the Legislature will come to a last-minute compromise that will let the specialists return to their previous assignments.

"It's not anyone's intention to go down this road, but we can't have classrooms without teachers there," she said.

Garcia and School Board President Sheila Moulton said they weren't so optimistic the budget will be passed soon enough.

If the K-12 budget is held up for months, Garcia said the district could stay open through August, although doing so would require about $13 million in deficit spending.

Garcia has said the school district could sue the Legislature for education funding, but Moulton said a lawsuit is not a likely or good option and Garcia has said a lawsuit would be a last resort.

Speaking during the Thursday school board meeting, Garcia said he is not taking sides in the battle between Democrats and Republicans in Carson City.

"All we want is a budget," Garcia said.

"I'm happy the senate took the action they did and I hope the assembly follows," Garcia said after the meeting.

"The senate's moving but in the assembly it's more of the same," Moulton said. "They've got to stop being martyrs and become heroes."