Letter: Reserving judgment on use of grant

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

In dissecting the "Looking in on: Education" article, which appeared in Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun, we read:

In response to the Clark County School District's crying need for 2,700 new teachers for the current year, it received a grant of $1.8 million "for innovative educational programs and services." The district started the year short nearly 400 teachers.

The district then hired 20 "personnel assistants" at an average of $47,000 per year and one "administrator" at $85,000 per year into the human resources department. With the extra staff the chairman "was able to process teacher job applications more quickly. The staff divided applications into subject groups by subject areas - such as math and science - as well as alphabetically, giving each individual assistant a more reasonable workload."

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he "supported the committee's actions. They're making their intent more clear and we appreciate that."

We read the progress made, agree the intent is more clear, but reserve comment upon "appreciation."

Richard E. Law, Las Vegas