LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Saturday, July 8, 2006 | 7:41 a.m.

A registered nurse for 30 years, Sally Jost is in hot demand. Her phone rings constantly with unsolicited lucrative job offers from employers who have apparently pulled her name from the state's licensing rolls. Her mailbox is crammed with more of the same.

"In all the years I've been working, I've never seen this kind of barrage," Jost said.

But Jost is trying to hire her own nurses.

She's director of health services for the Clark County School District, and she's facing the same staffing challenges as the hospitals and temp agencies trying to hire her.

With the new school year beginning Aug. 30, Jost is short 10 nurses. The district will likely fill the positions with "traveling" nurses from a temp agency, which increases costs by 20 percent, Jost said.

School nurses are on the same licensed personnel pay scale as teachers. The starting salary for a new nurse is $33,000.

"We can't compete with the private sector on salaries, but we offer a good work schedule, vacations and benefits," Jost said.

The Clark County School Board will be asked Thursday to consider developing vacant land for teacher housing, after district officials took a field trip to visit such a project in California.

George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the School District, traveled to Irvine, where median home prices top $700,000. Faculty at the University of California campus there can get a price break, however, because they can buy houses built on land owned by the university system.

Thanks to that subsidy, about 60 percent of UC Irvine's faculty have opted to live in the University Hills community and 80 percent of new faculty are on the waiting list, Rice said.

The project was successfully duplicated by UC Channel Islands. School districts in California are considering following the university system's lead.

Rice will ask the School Board to consider four vacant parcels of land as possible locations for teacher housing.

Unlike the California developments adjacent to university campuses, Rice will ask the School Board to consider several locations throughout Clark County. Ideally the developments would have a mix of houses, condominiums and apartments, Rice said.

"A lot of the teachers moving here, especially those right out of college, won't be prepared for, or interested in, buying a home," Rice said. "We need to make sure there's accessible housing for them as well."

Principals and teachers are scheduled to begin moving into the first of nine new schools next week.

Legacy High School will open its doors first, followed by Wright, Ward, Hayden, Thompson and Steele elementary schools. Johnston Middle School is scheduled Aug. 7.

The replacement Rancho High School is complete and staff is already moving in, said Fred Smith, construction manager for the School District. Construction of Schorr Elementary School and Tarkanian Middle School is behind schedule, Smith said.

At Schorr, there was a delay getting final approval from the county for access roads. At Tarkanian, the district bumped heads with nearby developers over drainage issues, but the Southern Highlands campus is expected to open on schedule.

Thiriot Elementary School opened three weeks late in 2005 because of construction and design-related delays.

It was the first time in more than a decade that one of the district's new schools was not completed in time .