Editorial: Schoolhouse blues

Thursday, June 7, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

Clark County has some of the most inexperienced principals in the country and is about to lose 20 percent of the experienced principals it does have through retirement.

This is important to note in light of a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Sunday about Rosanne Winter, a seasoned educator and school administrator who moved to Las Vegas from Florida in 2006 but has since left because she couldn't find a job in Clark County's schools.

Sun reporter Emily Richmond reports that Winter - who has 16 years of elementary and secondary classroom teaching experience, three years teaching college and five years as an administrator - applied for positions as principal and assistant principal at a number of Clark County elementary and secondary schools and for three positions in the district's central office.

But she received interviews only for the central office jobs and didn't receive a single offer. What's more, Winter told the Sun, district officials never told her why they didn't offer her any of the school-based jobs.

Clark County School Superintendent Walt Rulffes told the Sun that job applicants receiving poor responses from the district's human resources department "has occurred on many occasions, I am sorry to say." He said Winter's experiences should help district officials make "the appropriate internal adjustments."

We hope Rulffes pursues the matter. This educator's frustrating job search in the Clark County School District suggests that improvements are needed in the manner that human resources officials handle applicants.

Whether or not Winter was the right fit for the jobs she was seeking, her situation makes us wonder whether there is something in the process that hinders the hiring of experienced teachers and principals.

Clark County School Board members should follow up on Rulffes' promises to investigate the hiring process and, if necessary, work on the district's human resources shortcomings. Experienced teachers and administrators are in too short supply in Clark County to turn away quality candidates with silence.