Nevada state panel to lawmakers: Attracting teachers will require reforms, money

A statewide panel of teachers and school support workers focused on attracting educators to the field is suggesting a set of extensive reforms.

The Nevada State Teacher and Education Support Professional Recruitment and Retention Advisory Task Force supports 29 potential solutions to combat chronic educator vacancies, task force leaders told lawmakers last week. Of those 29 recommendations, at least 18 would require more funds from the state or districts.

One of its top suggestions, according to the task force’s report: a statewide minimum teacher salary schedule, to include annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Other suggestions: incentives for special education teachers and staff, a student loan forgiveness plan and supplementing an existing state program to help teachers put a down payment on a home.

The report didn’t come with a proposed statewide salary floor or other estimated dollar figures, but the call for major investments wasn’t lost on Assemblywoman Selena La Rue Hatch, a Reno Democrat and a high school teacher in the Washoe County School District.

“A lot of this does have to do with funding, and as we as educators know, a lot of it is chronic underfunding,” she said during the meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Interim Standing Committee on Education.

Lawmakers heard a summary of the findings, although they did not commit to any of the suggestions.

“Implementing many of these recommendations will require additional funding to be invested in Nevada’s K-12 education system,” the report read. “The task force realizes that the availability of funding is largely dependent on Nevada’s tax revenue, but it firmly believes that if the state is committed to addressing the chronic and pervasive educator workforce challenges, new investments must be made and sustained long-term.”

The task force grouped recommendations into five categories: recruitment, retention, removing barriers, letters of support from the interim education committee to various agencies and representatives, and systemic support and infrastructure to improve working conditions.

“Members felt deeply that no one solution could fix the current struggle and that recruitment and retention efforts must approach challenges from multiple angles and address multiple levels of the education system,” Kerri Finn, the task force’s vice chair and a clinical aide in the Carson City School District, told lawmakers. “As an example, if Nevada revises our state retirement benefits to support recruitment and retention efforts without also improving working conditions, educators may still leave.”

The report comes after the Legislature expanded the existing Nevada State Teacher Recruitment and Retention Advisory Task Force last year to include support professionals. The task force is composed of 18 members, with at least one from each school district in the state.

Task force chair Sherry Spencer, a high school teacher in the Lincoln County School District, said, “A simple solution will not solve the educator workforce shortages.

“Only a holistic, forward-thinking, system-centered approach will be able to truly affect working conditions in a way that positively impacts educator recruitment and retention,” she said.

In the Clark County School District alone, there were postings for about 300 support professional positions and more than 1,100 teachers as of Monday on the district’s jobs website. CCSD is the state’s largest public school district.

State approves of CCSD pandemic spending

The Nevada Department of Education said CCSD met all requirements with its use of pandemic relief funds and found no instances of noncompliance, the school district said in a news release.

A state Department of Education review recognized CCSD for the community engagement about the initial spending of the federal American Rescue Plan and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund dollars that CCSD received in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the online dashboard at future.ccsd.net laying out how the district directed its funds.

CCSD received $777 million in relief funds.

Its spending deadline is Sept. 30.

Back-to-school fairs

The state treasurer’s office is having a back-to-school fair from 4-7 p.m. Friday at Rancho High School, 1900 Searles Ave., North Las Vegas.

Students can drop in for a free backpack or lunchbox, free haircuts, immunizations and vision screenings, along with activities like face painting, ice cream, games and a raffle.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is having back-to-school events that will include arts and crafts, music, backpack and supply giveaways for kids, and a chance to drop slime on librarians.

Drop by any of these events:

• 3 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Drive

• 10:30 a.m. Aug. 9 at Centennial Hills Library, 6711 N. Buffalo Drive

• 3 p.m. Aug. 12 at Whitney Library, 5175 E. Tropicana Ave.

[email protected] / 702-990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun