New teachers wait for word on bonuses

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

The Clark County School District has been getting calls from teachers who have been offered jobs for the fall, saying if the Legislature doesn't fund their $2,000 signing bonus they won't be coming.

"We're hearing some serious reservations from people we've hired," Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the district, said this morning. "We hire 70 percent of our teachers from out of state, and clearly a lot of them are watching what's going on here."

Job candidates have been told the signing bonus is a possibility but that it hinges on funding from the state, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district. For some teachers the possibility of the bonus is what's keeping Clark County on their short list of potential employers, Rice said.

Each day that the Legislature goes without finalizing school funding for the fiscal year starting July 1, the district falls further behind in recruiting, Rice said. The district needs 1,600 new teachers on the job by Aug. 13, and so far has hired just 355.

"In any other year, we would have had 800 to 1,000 teachers hired by May 1, without question," Rice said. "We're missing out on some good candidates because we're not in a position to make offers."

The federal No Child Left Behind Act presents another troubling scenario because it requires that teachers meet new accreditation standards above what individual states already demand. Teachers currently working for a school -- or hired by June 30 -- have until June 2006 to satisfy the requirements. But teachers hired after July 1 must meet the new standards immediately.

"At midnight June 30 we turn into pumpkins," Rice said. "We're going to lose a large segment of our applicant pool because they won't have those requirements done by the time we're able to offer them a job."

The district, in partnership with the Clark County Education Association, is offering courses this summer to help people meet the new standards, but new hires won't be eligible because they won't have contracts in time, Rice said.

Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district, said he and Rulffes met with Superintendent Carlos Garcia Monday to discuss possible contingency plans if Gov. Kenny Guinn followed through on his threat to shut down the government.

"I think we all realize we're facing a potentially severe situation, but we're also optimistic that we're going to see some sort of resolution this week," Orci said. "We're all just praying there's some sort of compromise reached up north."

The district has enough emergency reserves and sources of local revenues to get through the summer months and meet its payroll obligations, Rulffes said. The real concern is the start of the new school year in the fall, he said.

"We're planning on class size reductions, special program and services, all of which depend on state funding," Rulffes said. "Local revenues would certainly not be enough to support those activities."