Schools in 'crisis': Nevada short nearly 1,000 teachers

• See bottom of story for list of Washoe schools with teacher vacancies.

A staggering 955 classrooms are without licensed teachers in Nevada public schools, leaving thousands of students to be taught by substitutes, according to a report released Thursday.

If history is any indication, these substitutes will remain throughout the school year. Finding teachers mid-year has proven difficult for Nevada schools.

“I’ve never been as alarmed as I am today,” said Elaine Wynn, president of the Nevada State Board of Education, after receiving the first-ever teacher vacancy report from school districts on Thursday. “We’re going to all sink. This is horrific.”

Wynn’s comments were pointed specifically at “the crisis in Clark County School District,” responsible for 772 of the vacancies. That’s 200 more vacancies than last year in the Las Vegas school system despite a state investment in public education this year reaching hundreds of millions of dollars – including $10 million in hiring bonuses for new teachers – to improve Nevada’s disappointing school performance. Most of the money goes to Clark County schools.

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“Without the warm bodies, it will not work,” Wynn said of the reforms and increased funding, telling districts they “must take advantage” of the extra funding. “We’re shining a very bright light today.”

Washoe was also in the spotlight Thursday, reporting a need for 50 teachers who haven’t been hired. About half of those vacancies are for special education teachers.

However, the Northern school system has fewer vacancies than last school year, when it posted about 80 unfilled teacher positions, said the district’s director of talent acquisition, Emily Ellison.

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Both Washoe and Clark are using long-term substitutes to fill the void. Long-term substitutes stay in the same classroom to give students some consistency, if not a teacher licensed for their grade and subject.

State law requires that schools notify parents when their children are being taught by long-term substitutes, who may have a teaching license but not in the area they're working. At the minimum, substitute teachers in Nevada must have at least 60 college credits. No degree is required.

“The good news is that we have long-term substitutes filling those classrooms,” said Dena Durish, Nevada’s deputy superintendent of educator effectiveness and family engagement, noting the benefit provided by not having to absorb these students into other classes, which would create larger class sizes.

A reliance on long-term substitutes is nothing to celebrate, said Wynn. It means art teachers are running math classes, she added as an example.

“This is not the way to run a company, business or school district,” said Wynn, speaking primarily to Clark County school officials.

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Responsible for 70 percent of Nevada’s 450,000 public school students, the Las Vegas school system was under the microscope Thursday because of its overwhelming size and repeated failure, starting every school year in memorable history short a few hundred teachers.

Staci Vesneske, chief human resources officer for Clark County schools, agreed “this is a crisis.” The district has hired 1,800 new teachers for the current school year and still requires about 700 more. Same as the past few years, the district hasn’t needed many additional teachers. It’s been replacing one out of every 10 teachers, who are leaving every summer by choice.

“Why are we losing teachers at this pace?” asked board member Victor Wakefield.

He received no clear answer from Clark County recruiters, who told of their efforts to attract new teachers: billboards, taxi cab advertisements and hiring a staffing company. The Southern Nevada district even trained and licensed 245 teachers this year.

Vesneske said the district doesn’t want to get into the business of training would-be teachers.

“We have done so by necessity,” she said.

Still, there are more than 700 vacancies in the district. And three-fourths of these teacher vacancies are in Title I schools, which have the most poor students and often the lowest academic performances.

Vesneske said most these vacancies are due to new teachers starting at Title I schools and then applying for jobs at other schools once they get experience, leaving these disadvantaged students with a revolving door of new, inexperienced teachers.

That problem is not repeated in Washoe, where the high-poverty schools have the fewest vacancies, Ellison said.

Washoe County schools with one teacher vacancy:

• Allen, Beasley, Diedrichsen, Dodson, Donner Springs, Double Diamond, Hidden Lake, Huffaker, Incline, Juniper, Lemelson, Mathews, Melton, Mitchell, Pleasant Valley, Risley, Smithridge, Stead, Sun Valley and Taylor elementary schools.
• Cold Springs, Depoali and Traner middle schools.
• Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology; Damonte Ranch; Reed; Spanish Springs and Innovations high schools.

Washoe County schools with two teacher vacancies:

• Gomes, Greenbrae, Hall, Lemmon Valley, Silver Lake and Mount Rose elementary schools.
• Sparks and Vaughn middle schools.

Washoe County schools with three teacher vacancies:

• Palmer Elementary School and O’Brien Middle School.