Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sunday, May 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Nearly 600 letters will be mailed Monday to Clark County School District support employees, notifying them that their jobs will be eliminated for the 2009-10 academic year.
Similar notifications will go to administrators on May 15, and teachers will get the bad news in letters to be mailed May 30, district officials told the Sun.
District officials said Friday that 574 of the district’s 12,000 support staff will be getting letters notifying them of layoffs.
Teachers and administrators are still being shuffled, and district officials say it’s too soon to estimate how many letters will go out in the next two rounds of notifications.
Employees with the most seniority have the best chance of landing another position in the district.
The uncertainty has become agonizing, said Belinda “Bo” Yealy, president of the Clark County Support Employees Association, which represents the district’s custodians, instructional aides, school bus drivers, office personnel and food service workers, among others.
The association has wanted support employees to be notified as quickly as possible of potential layoffs, but more important, the information needs to be accurate, Yealy said.
She didn’t know the number of letters the district was planning to mail, adding, “Their playbook hasn’t exactly been open to us.”
Gov. Jim Gibbons signed Assembly Bill 541 into law last week, granting a two-week extension to the statutory deadline for school districts to notify people that they would not be rehired.
The support staff cuts are going to hurt schools, Yealy said. In addition to the support employees being notified, the district plans to leave about 250 vacancies unfilled.
“The kids are going to be suffering from this, and the families of our employees are going to suffer,” Yealy said. “It’s very sad.”
•••
Put another feather in the cap of Green Valley High School’s marching band.
The Henderson student musicians have been chosen for the 2010 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The announcement — which came as a surprise to the students — was made Wednesday evening during the band’s concert at the Henderson Pavilion amphitheater.
The Macy’s parade organizers notify bands 18 months before the event so schools have ample time to raise money, said Diane Koutsulis, who along with Cecil Myers serves as Green Valley’s band director.
The advance notice is particularly welcome after the students’ mad scramble in December to raise $120,000 in five weeks to participate in the presidential inauguration.
If there’s a downside to the delay, it might be for the juniors currently in the band and drill team, Koutsulis said. They will participate in fundraising efforts next year, but won’t get to make the trip to New York. Most of this year’s senior band members have been to Scotland, Rome, London and Paris.
Even with the host of honors the band has racked up in recent years, the Macy’s parade wasn’t a sure thing, Koutsulis said. Green Valley will be the first Southern Nevada high school to participate.
•••
For even an experienced teacher, being moved from the third grade to the fifth grade would be a challenge.
First-year teacher Renee Duplessie had it happen after just one month on the job at Detwiler Elementary.
Duplessie’s successful adjustment, and the positive effect she’s had on her students, have earned her the title of Clark County’s New Teacher of the Year in the intermediate elementary category.
The Clark County School Board recognized her and four other first-year teachers, who were nominated by their principals. Diane Babb, a Clark County School District graduate, was the honoree in the middle school category. Babb, who earned a Millennium Scholarship to UNLV, teaches math at Bailey Middle School; Cantel McCurdy, in the elementary-primary category, is also a product of the district.
McCurdy, who teaches first grade at Sunrise Acres Elementary, graduated from Chaparral High School in 1992 and attended College of Southern Nevada and UNLV.
Earning honors in the high school category was Duane Graham. A native of Oregon, Graham teaches U.S. history and law at Basic High School.
In the special education category, the new teacher of the year is Rebecca Alleman of Brinley Middle School. Alleman, who earned a degree from Stanford University, is a member of the Teach for America corps, which trains college graduates to work in at-risk schools.
"Duplessie's successful adjustment, and the positive effect she's had on her students, have earned her the title of Clark County's New Teacher of the Year in the intermediate elementary category."
Renee, I hope you don't get a Reduction In Force letter on May 30. As a new teacher you just might find yourself in the unemployment line. BTW - Congrats on your award.
This is awful. I really wish that they would do a bigger uniform pay cut for all of us so that we don't have to lay off great teachers and assistants like the ones mentioned in this article. It breaks my heart to imagine them gone.
Isn't part of the problem that janitors need a Union? Sure, they get better pay than if they were non-Union, but when it comes to crunch time, the County doesn't bargain to get lower pay, to spread the pain around, since the Unions cry and moan, and it becomes a big PITA. The County simply kicks some of them to the curb. Only thing they can do. Same thing with the construction Unions. Perini suggested a $2 hour pay cut, and the Unions scoffed at it. Well, what comes around goes around, and within a year, the numbers of homeless on Foremaster will be increasing daily with hundreds of out of work construction types. And we all know that work ain't coming back here for years. And they never saw it coming. Gee, I made $30 bucks an hour-What happened, Mr. Business Agent???
Contacts within this criminally corrupt publicly funded CCSD recently revealed administration support personnel purchasing upon their school issued, taxpayer funded school credit cards, wii video gaming systems for their own children's home entertainment.
The spending was being authorized by the support personnel's supervisors i.e. principles, which apparently have no idea, choose not to know or are condoning such purchases.
Layoffs are too kind for what this group of "support" criminals deserve.
"Layoffs are too kind for what this group of "support" criminals deserve."
Harley, either come up with a workable Constitutional solution or shut up. I'm tired of reading about you putting down the school districts.
There are GOOD people that are going to lose their jobs. And to hear you lump them all as crooks and corrupt makes me wonder how one person can have a soul so blackened and bitter towards their fellow man.
It is so disheartening to see yet again more people are getting laid off from their jobs.. This means the possibility of 600 more homes going into foreclosure, 600 less people being able to pay their bills, less money going into the economy. Whatever the profession may be, it's always sad to see this happen. I don't see the economy turning around any time soon, but many more lay-offs to come. What I really find so unjust, is the banks and others that carry the largest responsibility for what has happened to the economy are the recipients of Stimulus Money, and the "little people" are the ones that are actually paying the price..
harley; please, go see a doctor. it's getting worse! It may, however, not be too late! Hurry!
and HERE AGAIN we have NEVADA APPLE SLICES
pretending to be a "concerned" fellow employee that "CARES" about others. What a load of crap.
It's actually NANCE trying to incite people. How idiotic and pathetic is that???
"District officials said Friday that 574 of the district's 12,000 support staff will be getting letters notifying them of layoffs".
With 11,426 more layoffs to go, 574 isn't even a good start.