District, new teachers begin 'scary' venture

At 46, Craig Vriend had climbed the corporate ladder and pulled down a six-figure salary.

He had run the frequent-flyer program at American Airlines and handled multi-million dollar budgets for Hilton Corp. Vriend, also an engineer, had built nuclear power plants.

Now Vriend has a new job and a new degree in hand, one that has earned him a teaching certificate. This week he joins a swarm of 1,450 new teachers entering the Clark County School District.

"What we're all encountering is a lack of experience," Vriend said, standing in Room 902 at Silverado High School, his new workplace. "I've held press conferences, I've led probably thousands of meetings. But when you walk in here, it's different."

The district's latest -- and largest -- recruiting class is now being shepherded through orientation before school starts Aug. 24. Many of the new teachers stopped by their schools Wednesday morning. They later streamed into Las Vegas High School, packing the gym, for their only mass gathering.

The district's top administrators wished them well and sent them on their way.

"This is extremely exciting -- and very scary," Assistant Superintendent Kay Carl said afterward as the rookies headed for cars sporting license plates from Pennsylvania, Oregon and Minnesota. "There is a lot of training that needs to happen."

Each year, school officials launch one of the most aggressive teacher-recruiting campaigns in the country, trolling 44 states for graduates, even chasing applicants on the Internet.

New recruits are needed to handle the district's staggering increases in student enrollment -- expected to top 200,000 this fall.

The district competes with many states that offer better pay and incentives than Nevada. Mississippi now uses some of its gaming revenues to pay college tuition for teachers who work three years in the state. Other districts, including many in Texas, pay moving expenses.

This week the district's personnel office is scrambling to fill the remaining 160 or so unfilled positions. One man from Georgia who wandered into the office on Tuesday was hired by Wednesday, Rice said.

About 50 of the unfilled positions are special-education jobs that probably will be filled indefinitely by substitutes. Special-education and bilingual teachers are the hardest to find, despite special recruitment programs to attract them.

The new teachers, men and women with various life experiences, among them 170 minorities, expressed both fear and excitement.

Joan Regan, 48, decided to try teaching again after giving it up in Michigan to live in Italy for a year. The bilingual teacher will have five different lesson plans to prepare each day at J.D. Smith Middle School.

"I'm not the least bit afraid of dealing with the students," Regan said. "I'm afraid that I won't be able to give them what they need."

District officials have sometimes struggled to keep tabs on their new teachers as they spread out among the county's 219 schools. Officials have admitted that some principals are better at giving guidance and feedback than others.

In a Las Vegas Sun story about new teachers that ran in March, some of the 30 new teachers interviewed said they did not get the mentorship or advice they needed. Several said they were floundering without direction.

"The district is really big and it's easy to get lost here," one 25-year-old recruit said.

This year, the district is introducing a program that will make one teacher at each school responsible for pairing up rookies with veterans. Officials hope the mentors will make the new teachers more comfortable.

"We don't want to have to recruit for their position next year," Rice said.

Back at Silverado on Wednesday, Principal Aldeane Ries told her small flock of about 15 new teachers -- mostly young faces -- to bring any questions and concerns to her immediately.

"I know you feel inundated," she told the apprehensive-looking group sitting around a conference table. "It's OK. You'll have people to help you. If you don't know how to do something, we'll hand-carry you to someone who does. Don't ever think you've lost a support system."

Vriend said he was approached by several schools but was most impressed with Ries. Now he is looking forward to meeting his 175 students. He wonders how much math they already know. He is eager to find out how they learn.

Vriend said he has no regrets about taking a $90,000 pay cut to move from the board room to the class room.

"I won't have to go to as many meetings anymore," said Vriend, an avid hiker who lives on Mount Charleston. "I have a 7-year-old kid. I can't travel anymore. I'm out of the rat race."

Still, Vriend knows that teaching can be hard.

"In the past when things didn't work, I fired people," he said. "You can't fire people here."

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