Putting out the welcome mat

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 | 7:28 a.m.

Paul Chase spent four years on active duty in the Marine Corps, including a 14-month combat stint in Iraq. But it's his latest assignment - teaching Clark County high schoolers how to drive - that has him nearly quavering in his boots, thanks to a much different set of hazards.

"You've got construction everywhere, people moving here unfamiliar with the roads and then add the inexperienced teen drivers," Chase said. "This place is a madhouse."

Chase is a catch, one of the more than 3,100 new teachers the Clark County School District needs on the job by August. The district is about 500 short.

As hard as it is to recruit new teachers, the district knows it's just as important to help them feel welcomed once they arrive so they'll stay around. Historically, about half of all new teachers have left within five years, which stokes the need for still more teachers.

So since 2000, the district has been putting out the welcome mat for new employees, preparing them for the start of school and helping them feel at home. The drill began Monday in the library at the district's Curriculum and Professional Development Center, where rookies were greeted by seasoned veterans offering bowls of candy, bottled water and fold-out maps of Clark County.

"I can't think of anything worse than being dumped in a strange town, not knowing anything and not knowing who to ask," said Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association. "Having everything in one place, whether its maps to help you get around town or someone to explain the paperwork, is critical."

The welcome center's ambassadors agreed.

"I've had older teachers tell me, 'I wish you guys did all this when I got here. It would have made my life so much easier,' " said Tracy Barkhoff, who is in her 12th year with the district and graduated from Chaparral High School. "The district is getting better and better at figuring out how to help new teachers get off to the right start."

At the welcome center, Chase, who is assigned to Durango High School, picked up information about the teachers' union as well as a handful of pamphlets and maps designed to familiarize him with the district. Chase skipped the table scattered with binders listing "roommates wanted," "apartments for rent" and "housing needed."

Chase's wife found work with Cox Communications and with their combined incomes they were able to buy a home in northwest Las Vegas. Chase will earn $38,000 this year, his experience and master's degree boosting him $5,000 above the starting salary for new teachers.

"There's no way I could have even come close (to buying a home) on my own," Chase said.

The district's welcome center is literally the first stop for many new teachers as they roll into town. Some show up still pulling their U-Haul trailers, hoping for housing leads.

Leslie Minger, who will teach music at Nate Mack Elementary School in Henderson, came to the welcome center for advice on renting an apartment. Her own house would have to wait.

Her School District salary is similar to what she would have made back home in Toledo, Ohio. But working here - for the nation's fastest-growing school district - offers more opportunities for advancement. And the $2,000 signing bonus for new teachers, approved by the Nevada Legislature, was an extra incentive that made it a little easier for her to head west.

"If you're asking yourself if on a teacher's salary you can really pick up and move across the country, the bonus helps," Minger said.

Her mother, Jayne Minger, who made the trip to Las Vegas to help her daughter get settled, said she was impressed that the district went to such lengths to help newcomers feel at home.

"It's all so organized, but I guess they have to be when they hire 3,000 new teachers," Jayne Minger said. "That's more than our school district back home even has."

Two teachers from West Virginia showed up Monday at the welcome center, bringing with them a combined 64 years of classroom experience - and no need for roommates. They are husband and wife.

Robin Hinkley will teach music at Mojave High School; her husband, Sheldon Hinkley, will teach special education at Mannion Middle School. Hinkley said she and her husband hope to finish their careers in Clark County.

But because of the cost of housing, they're going to rent for now and hold off selling their West Virginia home until next summer, "just in case" things don't work out in Las Vegas.

But at least for now, they feel welcomed.

"I don't know that people could be any nicer than they've been to us so far," Hinkley said.