Letter: Administrator has two i’s; team has none

Friday, May 26, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

As a 28-year educator with the Clark County School District, I am deeply concerned with our district's lack of teamwork when it comes to doing what's right for kids.

Our district administration has been meeting behind closed doors for several months to discuss what to do about the enormous amount of teaching vacancies next year. The embarrassing teaching salaries along with the cost of housing in the valley have finally caught up with years of our district administrators watching but not acting to prevent this situation.

As could be expected, one such course of action suggested by the administration could be to move 1,000 teaching personnel, who are not in general education classrooms but serve as literacy specialists, English-language learner specialists, elementary computer specialists and special-education specialists, back into the general education classrooms. Keep in mind the majority of these people are currently instructing students through the day and play key, front-line roles in meeting federal and No Child Left Behind mandates.

Our district leadership will suggest to the public that this is being done to do what's best for the kids, but why then is there no mention of any administrative specialists, deans, assistant principals or other extra departmental administrators being used to help fill the teaching vacancies? They all have teaching licenses. There are hundreds of them available.

Teachers and support staff are constantly reminded by our administrative colleagues that we are a team and our goal is to best serve the children of Clark County, but that team never includes the many hundreds of School District administrators when sacrifices need to be made, despite logic and practicality.

I've never met a good teacher who wouldn't do what's best for kids, including "taking one for the team." Isn't it about time our administrators do the same?

Bart Boulton, Las Vegas