Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Specialists: Cuts hurt students in most need

Some Clark County School District technology and literacy specialists say the loss of their positions -- and the harm it will cause -- is being lost in the discussion about the suspension of the Clark County School District's Gifted and Talented Education program,

"We need GATE, no one's suggesting it isn't very valuable," said literacy specialist Lynn Gustafson, whose own son went through the program. "But the GATE students for the most part are going to do well in school no matter what. I'm talking about the kids who aren't going to know how to read."

Technology specialists provide technical support to multiple schools and instruct teachers in how to incorporate equipment and software into their classroom instruction. Literacy specialists work directly with students who need extra help and also coach teachers on how to better teach reading.

"There's millions of dollars of computer equipment in the schools that's going to go to waste if there's no one there to keep it running or teach the teachers how to use it," Gustafson said. "I worry that they're pitting us against each other in this fight, literacy against technology, the specialists against GATE."

Because state lawmakers have yet to pass the K-12 education budget and tax package, the district's hiring office is at a standstill. With just two months until the start of the 2003-04 academic year, the district still needs to fill nearly 1,000 positions. To ease the crisis Superintendent Carlos Garcia ordered Friday that 411 GATE teachers and specialists be reassigned to general classrooms.

The district has already placed 111 literacy specialists, 136 technology specialists and 91 GATE teachers, George Ann Rice, associate superintendent for human resources said this morning. Another 71 teachers either found alternate assignments on their own within the district or will remain in their jobs thanks to federal funds allotted to at-risk schools, Rice said.

District officials have vowed to reinstate the GATE program as quickly as possible, perhaps as early as September. But the elimination of the literacy and technology specialist positions will most likely be permanent for the 2003-04 academic year, Rice said.

The district's quick action to move the teachers to regular classrooms was spurred in part by federal regulations under the No Child Left Behind Act. Beginning July 1, districts will only be allowed to hire teachers who meet stricter federal qualifications. Teachers already employed prior to July 1 have three years to meet the new standards.

"This is not a situation where we can wait any longer for lawmakers to take action," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district. "And the last thing we want to do is offer a job to someone and then have to rescind that offer later because we either don't have the funding or we've overhired. That would destroy our credibility for future recruiting."

Gustafson said she was offered a fourth-grade classroom at a school in the southwest region, even though her teaching experience is limited to the first, second and third grades. All reassigned teachers are scheduled to meet Aug. 4 to find out what last-minute positions may be available to them, Gustafson said.

In the meantime, Gustafson worries what will happen at Staton Elementary School in the northwest region, where she's been the literacy specialist since 1996. In addition to helping new teachers devise reading lesson plans and working one-on-one with struggling students, Gustafson helped bring in retirees to serve as volunteers tutors. She also chaired the school's Student Intervention Program. The committee, made up of teachers, administrators and the school nurse, reviews specific student cases to determine what kind of help is needed, ranging from remedial services to special education testing, Gustafson said.

"(The school) will do the best they can, I know, but I worry about who's going to take it over," Gustafson said. "They can't ask the regular classroom teachers to do it; they have enough work as it is."

One of Garcia's first moves as superintendent more than three years ago was to announce an initiative to have every student reading at grade-level by the end of third grade. The reading program was reorganized and literacy specialists moved from working strictly with students to helping fellow teachers become more effective at teaching reading in the regular classrooms.

"I think overall it's been very successful," Gustafson said. "I guess there's some sad irony here that (Garcia) felt he had to interrupt a program he obviously feels strongly about."

The district's technology specialists are responsible for training teachers to use the latest software and devices, as well as maintaining a school site's equipment. Another Garcia initiative has been to boost the use of technology in classrooms and streamline intra-district communications with the help of the Internet and e-mail.

"You wouldn't believe all the extra hours I put in before school starts, every morning before hours and after school in the evenings just to keep one school running smoothly," said one technology specialist in an e-mail.

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