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Marie King removes teaching materials from the walls of a classroom Friday at Gibson Middle School. For the second time this year, King has been reassigned because of shifting demographics, this time to Clark High School, where she will teach English as a second language, rather than Spanish.
Monday, Sept. 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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Spanish teacher Marie King spent three weeks setting up her classroom at Gibson Middle School, even paying to have one wall painted a cheery shade of purple that she thought her students would enjoy.
On Friday, she spent three hours taking down posters and packing up her belongings, one of the 168 Clark County School District teachers who were reassigned after enrollment came in lower than expected at their campuses.
The process of reassigning teachers in the wake of “count day” happens every fall in Clark County — but historically, the changes are the result of growth, when campuses get extra, portable classrooms to accommodate more students, and staffs are altered to fairly distribute the more experienced teachers.
This year, however, administrators are cutting elective classes at some middle and high schools, and discovering fewer classroom teachers are needed at elementary schools.
Map of Del Sol
Del Sol
3100 E. Patrick Ln., Las Vegas
The fate of 168 of them played out Thursday night at Del Sol High School. They were called one by one, in order of seniority, to review a list of open positions in the district and write down their top three choices. By the end of the evening, all but one teacher had a new assignment — and that individual is expected to be offered a position soon, said Bill Garis, deputy human resources chief.
King is used to shifting assignments. In May she was transferred from Eldorado High School because of the shift of a large number of students there to a new school. King considered herself lucky to land at Gibson, a magnet middle school, where she says, she was warmly welcomed.
“Everyone was wonderful to me,” King said. “I’m sorry to leave them.”
Although most of the surplus teachers are relatively new to the district — and 34 are brand new — 64 veterans in the crowd had volunteered to take the place of a co-worker in the reassignment pool.
Such were the circumstances for kindergarten teacher Lisa Bright, who with 11 years’ seniority, had nothing to worry about at Cambeiro Elementary. But with this year’s drop in enrollment, someone needed to leave. Bright volunteered to be the surplus teacher, allowing one of her less-experienced colleagues — who had only kindergarten experience — to stay put rather than be reassigned to a different grade level at another school.
Besides, Bright figured, she would have a good choice of assignments because of her tenure.
She was right, and starting Monday she will be a learning strategist at Harley Harmon Elementary. Her new job will require her to work closely with individual students and teachers. Bright said she doesn’t mind giving up her own classroom.
“We’re all in this together,” Bright said. “I’m going to miss my students, but it’s early enough in the year that I know they’ll be fine.”
At the district’s surplus meeting, King wasn’t able to find an opening as a Spanish teacher. However, she qualified for a spot teaching English as a second language at Clark High School, which, like Gibson, is home to several thriving magnet programs. In a time of uncertainty for educators, her dual certification in ESL was something of a golden ticket, improving the odds she would be matched up with an open position.
“That’s exactly why I went back to school and got it,” said King, who taught three years in New York before moving to Southern Nevada to be closer to family. “I can take it with me wherever I go.”
Scott Gratton, who had taught photography at Durango High School for three years, was less confident than King when he arrived at the meeting. Gratton’s teaching license is for art, and he is not certified in any other subject areas. So there were two scenarios for him to worry about — that the open art positions would go to teachers with more seniority than he has, and that he wouldn’t be qualified for any of the jobs that remained.
In fact, it was Gratton’s lucky night. There was one job available for an art teacher, at Spring Valley High School, and there were no art teachers in the surplus pool with more seniority than Gratton.
The district’s process for handling surplus teachers isn’t so much unfair as it is disorganized, Gratton told the Sun. Spring Valley’s administrators had no opportunity to interview him and determine whether he would be a good fit at the school, or whether there might be a better match in the surplus pool.
“I’m a good teacher,” Gratton said. “But what if I wasn’t? They have no way of knowing that.”
Sounds like the Art teacher needs to expand his expertise to remain a value to the district.
Not to mention what this does to the children. I have a 6 year old that come home Thursday after school in tears. He stated to me that his teacher, in which he has had for one month told him he was moving to another class as well as another track. He was told to turn in his math book and that he did not have to do any homework since he would be in another class as of Monday. She also handed him some artwork that was supposed to represent himself when it came time for "helper of the day". He put a lot of time and effort into this. To get to the point, we as parents were never notified before our child. Oh yes, he did have a sealed letter in his backpack that was given to him at school that day but the damage was already done. This "random" last minute swap of teachers and students is ludicrous! When my husband and I went to speak with the principal the following day to plead our case, which is we have two other children in CCSD and that moving our elementary school student to track three would ruin any family gatherings seeing that our other children are in 9 month schools, she was conveniently unavailable even though my husband had stated we would be by later to speak with her. This was the last straw! My husband called CCSD while we were in the school and left a message for the regional director. We are supposed to hear from them today regarding this matter. I did not send my son to school today as he was expected to go to the new class without his former friends and teacher but I feel that if this is the way CCSD wishes to handle a traumatic experience such as this one with my son, in the manner in which they did so, than our son(s) will be better off getting their education elsewhere.
If this has happened to any other children/parents I would appreciate hearing from you. I will update this post tomorrow once we have the final verdict.
Add me to that list. My son also brought a letter home, told me his teacher was reassigned he was getting a new one today. I can't believe his school actually had too many teachers considering his class had 33 4th graders! Craziness!
Couple of touchy subjects. First, my son did notice as the teacher that was departing cleaned up her classroom, taking everything off the walls, he said it was weird. And might I mention, taking all the supplies that I purchased for her class. So now I have to buy new supplies for the new teacher? You know the whole kleenex supply that the CCSD can't buy for our kids, but yet I bet all the upper staff employees have the CCSD buy for their desks in their cushy offices.
Other item is that is they're moving the kids to a 5th grade teacher, they will line up with the 5th graders, not their peers or those they go to lunch with. Their classroom is grouped with the 5th graders. Why didn't they just leave them in the same room and have the teacher move there? And...I don't know this teacher and in order for me to meet with that person I have to take time to do so? I will, but still...kind of messed up.
That's not half as bad as the fact that the CCSD changed their recess policy (last year) and now sends kids out BEFORE lunch to play however does NOT provide an opportunity for them to wash their hands before they eat. With the threats made of H1N1 I think this is intolerable! I'm not done complaining about this one.
SCHOOL VOUCHERS! Until then, Expect the worst!