Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CCSD schools taking 5-day break because of COVID staffing shortages

Thurman White Academy Summer Session

Wade Vandervort

Students walk through the hallway between classes during summer session at Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts in Henderson Wednesday, June 9, 2021.

Updated Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022 | 9:38 p.m.

The Clark County School District is canceling classes Friday through Tuesday because of “extreme staffing shortages” caused by COVID-19 cases, officials announced today.

“This five-day pause will promote a safe, healthy learning environment in our schools to ‘Stop the Spread’ in order to continue face-to-face instruction,” the district said.

The district did not say how many staff members are out with COVID.

The reshuffling of the schedule will mean students will be off Friday and Tuesday, though teachers will be working from home. School was already scheduled to be out Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The days will be made up on Feb. 7 and April 25, which were previously contingency and staff development days.

All sporting events and practices, before- and after-school activities, Safekey and field trips will be canceled during the pause, officials said.

School will resume as normal for employees and students on Jan. 19.

Gov. Steve Sisolak said he was monitoring the situation and would be ready to intervene and provide assistance if necessary.

“I hope this long weekend will allow staff, students, and our hardworking educators to get healthy so they can return to work ready to provide high-quality instruction for our children,” he said.

The district said the pause is in alignment with its virus quarantine and isolation guidelines.

Staff and students who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for five days. After that, they can return if they were asymptomatic or have improving symptoms, but they must wear a mask.

All hands on deck

A district spokesman said that employees who call in don’t have to specify why they need to be out.

However, teacher absences in the first few days back from winter break track with the post-holiday coronavirus surge seen nationwide.

When school resumed here on Jan. 5, 1,643 teachers were out, the district said. On Jan. 6, that climbed to 1,875. On Jan. 7, 2,147 teachers called in.

The district has averaged 1,396 daily teacher absences this school year.

Yet in those first three days back, the district was only able to fulfill about one in five requests made of the district’s pool of substitute teachers.

A few dozen central office employees who are certified as teachers fanned out into the schools. Schools also plug absences internally by putting administrators into classrooms or paying teachers extra to cover classes during what would be their preparation periods, a common solution known as selling preps or prep-buys. When all these options don’t pan out, students are gathered in large rooms like the library for supervision.

Isaac Stein knows the scramble. The principal at Desert Pines High School had 16 teachers out last Wednesday. Then 18 on Thursday. Then 26 on Friday.

Only two subs came in from the central sub pool.

At Desert Pines, which has roughly 3,000 students, prep-buys with the teachers on hand filled the gap. The northeast side school has 145 teacher positions, and like schools districtwide, has several open positions. According to CCSD’s job listings, nine teachers are needed at Desert Pines as of today.

Monday was a bit better, with only 22 teachers out; not all had COVID but several did, or were exposed to a sick family member. But Desert Pines still only got two outside subs, so it continued to stretch to fill vacancies internally.

“We have been fortunate to not have to combine classes as often as others. Our teachers have truly stepped up and assisted with covering classes,” Stein said. “It has been challenging and stressful, to say the least, but our teachers have been awesome and the support personnel that work with our team to get things set up each day are knocking it out of the park.

Stein said he’s covered classrooms too, but couldn’t last week. He was out with COVID.