LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

Thursday, July 6, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

Representatives of the Clark County School District and the teachers' union are heading west today for inspiration on one of the tough issues facing the district.

The destination Thursday is the University of California campus in Irvine, a city where the median home price hovers near $700,000 and faculty housing is at a premium.

Bill Parker, vice chancellor of UC Irvine, will lead a tour of a housing complex built on university land especially for professors. The next stop will be a similar on-campus neighborhood at Cal State University-Channel Islands.

Efforts to help teachers buy homes were dealt a blow after Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes decided his staff's time would be better spent recruiting support employees and addressing other pressing needs. The Coming Home Project, touted in October as a joint initiative of lenders, Realtors and community housing groups, has since been suspended.

The School District has identified four parcels of land that could serve as sites for teacher housing developments, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources. She plans to seek the School Board's support for the proposal at a meeting later this month.

"We're not giving up on creative solutions," Rice said.

At $43,500, Nevada ranks 26th in the nation for average teacher pay, according to the most recent salary survey by the National Education Association.

New teachers will earn $33,000 for the 2006-07 academic year, after the district and the Clark County Education Association negotiated a deal that will allow rookies to skip the first two steps on the pay scale.

With city, county and state officials studying the teacher housing crisis, Rulffes said he is not opposed to helping teachers secure mortgages but would prefer a more direct approach.

"Why don't we just pay teachers more and let them live their lives?" Rulffes said.

For once, Nevada is near the top of a list grading the nation's public schools. The Silver State was second only to Kentucky in a new survey of school nutrition programs by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Kentucky earned the nation's only A-minus grade, while Nevada, Arkansas, New Mexico, Alabama and California rounded out the top six, all with B-plus grades.

Nevada was praised for limiting the percentage of fat calories, sodium and sugars in school meals. In 2004 the Clark County School District banned junk food sales to students and replaced standard vending machine fare with granola bars and graham crackers.

Before being appointed to the School Board in October, Terri Janison served on a legislative committee studying childhood obesity. She also has pushed to revise the district's policies on recess and physical education requirements.

"We took a stand that wasn't popular with a lot of people, but it was the right thing to do," said Janison, who has crusaded against french fries and high-sugar snacks as campus cafeteria staples. "Now we're getting calls from school districts all over the country who want to know how we did it so they can follow our lead."

To the delight of students and dismay of some nutritional activists, including Janison Pop Tarts cleared the district's nutritional threshold and can be found in vending machines and school stores throughout Clark County.

At a recent national Action for Healthy Kids conference in Washington, D.C., Janison wandered into the lobby during a break in the proceedings to grab a snack. What she found waiting for the conference participants shouldn't have shocked her, given that Kellogg's was one of the lead sponsors.

"Pop Tarts!" Janison exclaimed. "Can you believe it?"

A recent North Las Vegas City Council agenda item made its way into the "Bad Idea From the Start" file: "Clark County School District obtained a grant from the Bureau of Land Management for a school site immediately north of the North Las Vegas shooting range about a quarter-mile east of the site. However, it has been determined that it would not be advisable to build a school adjacent to the shooting range."

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or at emily@lasvegassun.com.