Craig Elementary mourns loss of devoted teacher

It's Career Week at Lois Craig Elementary School in North Las Vegas, where pupils and staff Tuesday mourned the death of a first-grade teacher.

"I want to be a teacher," one pupil wrote in an essay posted outside a classroom. "I will teach the kids how to read and do math. I will give a long recess to the kids with all their work done."

The words are now a poignant tribute to Craig first-grade teacher Kim Phillips, 40, a mother of two.

Phillips died Monday in an accident on Interstate 15 between Cheyenne Avenue and Lake Mead Boulevard, about a half-hour after school let out. A dump truck vaulted over a median wall and crushed Phillips' sport utility vehicle.

"I think about her," one of Phillips' pupils, 6-year-old Elizabeth Mayorga, said Tuesday. "She let us read books like Disney and Mickey Mouse. She let us do math -- take-away and plus."

Family and friends said they would miss Phillips for her keen sense of humor, passion for teaching and love of the outdoors.

"She was a mountain girl," Phillips' 18-year-old daughter, Sharli Kelly, said.

Phillips' husband, Kevin Kennedy, said they were avid campers. Kennedy, a Nevada native, said he planned to take his wife, who hailed from Colorado, on a summer fishing trip in Nevada's rugged back country. Phillips had been in Las Vegas five years.

"She would really be surprised there was so much beauty," Kennedy said.

Kennedy talked about his wife in the small back yard of their Lakes area home, where the two had planted wild flowers, an apple tree and redwoods.

"I just made her this patio, if you can figure that out," Kennedy said, still in shock at the freak nature of the accident.

"That area of the freeway ...," he said, trailing off. "This town is going too quick."

He paused. "Only Kim," he said, referring to the accident's one fatality.

Phillips was on schedule to get her master's degree in administrative education next year. She had ambitions to be a principal.

"She was an 'A' student," Kennedy said.

Friends said Phillips spun funny tales about her pupils and her life as a teacher at Craig. They also said she was a good listener.

"She always gave the best advice," Cindy Prange said.

Friend and Metro Police Officer Jennifer Clampit said she was scheduled to talk to Phillips' class on Thursday for Career Week. She still plans to go.

"She would have wanted me to," Clampit said. "She was just that kind of teacher."

Six counselors and psychologists helped teachers, staff members and pupils sort through their emotions at the school Tuesday. Counselors explained to Phillips' 31 pupils that their teacher had died in an auto accident, trying to make it clear she wasn't coming back.

"For a lot of students, a teacher is a substitute parent," Rosemary Virtuoso, district specialist in psychological services, said.

Virtuoso, who was at the school Tuesday, said, "It's a real loss for kids. Kids feel vulnerable when they feel a loss."

She said Phillips' first-graders generally were coping well with the news. Some drew pictures of balloons and their teacher.

"They recognize that she is gone," Virtuoso said.

Third-grader Cindy Montes said she never had Phillips as a teacher, but she remembered that last year Phillips stopped by her class.

"She read to us," Cindy said. "(Today) I felt like I wanted to cry."

A long-term substitute probably will finish the year in the classroom. Phillips' team-teacher had reported for work and was coping, Principal Gloria Brooks said.

"She was really a caring person," Brooks, her eyes red and teary, said of Phillips. "She had a passion. She will be missed."

Several teachers said they were too shocked to talk about their colleague. Others remembered her as dedicated to her job and family.

Computer teacher Earl Brunner said Phillips had worked between sessions at the year-round school to help struggling pupils.

"Like any teacher, if you're a good teacher, you put in extra time, and she did that," Brunner said. "It's been pretty emotional for everybody."

In addition to her husband and daughter Sharli, Phillips is survived by another daughter, Cassie Phillips, 11; her parents, Marcie Kelly and Gene Kelly; and three sisters, Karen Feldman, Carol Kelly and Chris Murgo.

Funeral services will be at 4 p.m. Friday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave., in Green Valley.

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