This week on Nevada Week, staffing, safety, and academic performance.

These are just some of the issues on the minds of Clark County School District teachers as they head back to school.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

August 8th is the first day of class in the Clark County School District, and we've gathered a group of CCSD teachers to share their hopes for the coming school year, as well as their concerns and ideas to address them.

With us now are Kristan Nigro, a kindergarten teacher from Schorr Elementary; Marissa Sarandos, a second grade teacher from William Snyder Elementary; Lisa Schrader, a seventh grade math teacher from Bailey Middle School; Eric Luchs, a debate teacher at Foothill High School; and Kelley Sauve, a theater teacher from Durango High School.

Thank you all for joining us.

Coronavirus created colossal challenges for teachers.

First off, you had to learn how to teach virtually and effectively; and then when you returned in person, I think there were some behavioral issues, perhaps some academic issues, which we will talk about; and then, of course, taking on extra work as a result of staffing shortages.

And that is where I want to start.

Kristan, how did staffing shortages impact you last year?

And how do you think it'll go this year?

(Kristan Nigro) You know, I always try to stay optimistic.

I mean, that's one of the things that makes me who I am.

But as far as last year went, you could definitely feel it.

We found ourselves taking a lot of kids in when there was classes being split.

I mean, just an overall-- We always, as educators, step up to the plate and do what we need to do to educate our kids.

And that's what we are.

-What were your class sizes like?

-So I started the school year off with about 30-plus kids, five and six year olds, just lots of them running around Room 3 at Steve Schorr Elementary School.

But then after that, we waited until about October when surplus came, and we were lucky enough to get an extra teacher.

But somehow I ended the year with 16 kids.

I have no idea where they went.

-Wow!

Okay.

And I understand that was not the same case for everybody.

Lisa, what were your class sizes like?

(Lisa Schrader) Well, I had accelerated classes.

So my numbers were a little bit lower.

But most of the teachers, I think, we're probably about 30 kids in a class.

-Okay.

And the school district did recently announce hiring 883 new teachers; and that when school starts, about 91% of classrooms should have a licensed teacher in them.

There are still more than 1,300 vacancies, and the Clark County School District had a half glass full perspective on that number.

Take a listen.

(Carol Tolx) We're still trying to fill around 1,300 vacancies, but we're really excited about that because partly what that shows is that our principals are trying to stick to low class sizes.

So we are doing everything we can every day to help support them by hiring and digging for candidates everywhere we look.

-Any response to that, that this is a positive thing to have that many openings because it means principals want small class sizes?

(Marissa Sarandos) I don't know that it's a positive to have so many openings.

Obviously, they're working hard to raise pay and do things to fill these vacancies.

But I do think that the issues are deeper than that and deeper than even the pandemic.

They were just exacerbated by that.

There's so many issues to educators of not feeling valued, not being compensated for their education and their time in a way that other industries are.

So I'm hopeful, as well.

But I just think we have so much more work to do before we really get anywhere near filling all those vacancies.

-Sounds like it hits home for you.

It's like it's personal.

-Definitely.

I mean, this is what we do all day, right?

We give our heart to these kids, to our schools--extra time, extracurriculars.

But we're kind of sick of being the sacrificial lamb, that we just have to do it for the love of the job, because we're professionals.

You go to any school, you're going to see so many master's level professionals, often two masters to be an administrator or to do what they want to do.

-Eric?

(Eric Luchs) I would say that one of the biggest issues we had at our school, and I'm sure this is pretty much all schools, was in addition to not having a full teacher load for the school, we also lacked substitutes.

And that puts extra pressure on us when we have a prep period and there are no substitutes to stand into a room; that we often will sell our prep period to go into whichever teacher is missing, because we get sick too.

We have days off for medical reasons or whatever it happens to be.

Obviously, we're still in a pandemic.

And being able to step up for other teachers, you want to help out your colleagues as much as possible, but when a teacher has been gone for two or three weeks or there's an absence in a position completely and there's not someone that can fill in as a long term sub, essentially every substitute in the valley was taken last year.

So finding a way for us to compensate both of those things, in addition to what Marissa said, it's a struggle for us on the ground floor.

-This idea of selling prep periods.

For those who don't understand, what does that mean?

Do you want to jump in, Kelley?

(Kelley Sauve) So I sell my prep because it keeps me from not living paycheck to paycheck.

It's like the only way that I can make more money.

It's one of the ways.

So basically, what you-- You have a preparation period.

It's written into your contract to have that preparation period.

It allows you to plan, it allows you to grade papers, go to the bathroom.

And when teachers-- When there's a lack of teachers, you need to take on that extra class.

So you sell that preparation period and you get pay for that, but then you are without that preparation period.

-Did you want to add something?

-So in my experience this past school year, I am officially, I guess, an honorary PE teacher because that's what I sold my prep for all the time.

We had a lot of, just openings during the school year, as far as from our PE teacher, just various things.

So I was like, throw me in there.

I'll be more than happy to.

Because not only that, it gives me a chance to see different kids too.

And I don't know, I just think it's, it's tough because why are we in that situation?

I mean, definitely we don't have the substitute teachers, and that's a little scary.

-The teaching shortage, it's not just a Clark County issue.

It applies to large school districts across the country.

The National Education Association, that is the national affiliate for CCSD's teachers union, they had a survey, and in February, said that 55% of educators said that they are thinking of leaving the profession earlier than they had planned.

Has anyone here considered leaving teaching in the recent past?

Lisa, you say yes?

-Yeah, absolutely.

It's frustrating when you're not valued as an employee, when you're not being paid what you're worth, when you're expected to take on more and more and you're not compensated for that.

And there's plenty of other careers that love to have former teachers.

There's definitely skill sets, and it seems like everybody's hiring these days.

-I didn't know that.

So teachers are in demand?

I guess that's a profession you can move into something else easy with?

-I've heard that, as well.

A lot of companies, they value your skills as educators.

We have our hands in so many different things.

We're always multitasking.

There's a lot of strong skills there.

And I mean, I'd be lying too if I said I hadn't considered it.

When I first started off at CCSD five years ago, I took about a $10,000 a year pay cut from serving tables to go into a classroom.

So when you're getting the treatment, not only as an employee, but just as a person in the world and the way that education is being talked about, sometimes you have to consider other options and, like, is this the best thing for me?

-I keep hearing everybody say "value."

We need to feel valued; we don't feel valued.

How would you feel valued?

What could be done?

-I think-- I'm sorry, I'm gonna jump right in there.

The biggest thing is, too, is I really think, especially in Nevada, we've done a great job.

Our union, Clark County Education Association, has done a great job in going up to the legislature during legislative sessions, securing money.

That's a big piece.

But I also feel too like, I appreciate that and I know we're moving forward with it as far as this coming year, but it is about the money.

It is.

Like you and I were talking about this, I don't want it to be like, well, you know that when you got into this particular career that it's not the biggest moneymaker.

But why is that?

We're raising, you know-- Well, inevitably are raising.

We're raising kids that could possibly be the next person that's curing cancer or maybe that's going to take care of your mother or father or someone who's going to create the next biggest thing.

And so why are we not valued?

So I'm going to say right off the bat, I would be valued with monetarily.

I would be.

-And not only that, but we're dealing with so many more issues than just educating kids.

We are their counselors, their friends, their confidant.

Sometimes we have to make reports about their safety in their own homes or lives.

There's a lot that comes with what we do every day.

And you know, we don't-- We do it for the love of it, but it's a job, as well.

And when you're working 12-hour days, making $40,000 a year, which I know they've changed that.

No one is any more, but it's rough.

-Wow.

And especially with the cost of living right now.

Kelley?

-We are all highly educated.

And I don't know if the public knows this, but most of us have master's degrees because we want that pay raise.

But then every six years, in order to keep our job and renew our license, we have to take six college credits.

And that's on us; we pay for that.

And in order to-- Then otherwise, we lose our job if we don't do that.

And we do not get a pay raise for every one of those six credits.

So we are highly educated.

And that's like what you were saying about the industry, other industries want us because we are so highly educated.

And then that goes back to what you were saying about that there should be pay that's equal to that education that we all have.

-Not only that, but now in the public we're coming into question all the time, what we're teaching, how we're teaching it.

It's being legislated.

It's being discussed.

It's being talked about.

And you don't see this in other professions.

People who have sat in a classroom as a child believe that they're qualified to make decisions on curriculum and what we're teaching in our classrooms.

You wouldn't go to a lawyer's office and sit there and think that you were qualified to represent someone in court, right?

So these are things that we take very seriously.

We have a lot of research, reflective practices, and things that go into what we do in our classrooms.

And you can't plan that a year ahead.

Imagine if you asked your doctor for your health plans a year in advance.

It's not possible.

Same thing.

-So right about the high level of scrutiny that teachers do face.

I want to talk about some of the actions CCSD has taken, raising the starting salary of new teachers to 50,000, up from $43,000, and providing retention bonuses to current teachers of up to $5,000.

Any comments on those moves?

Eric?

-I would say that it's probably a great start, specifically when we look at the open vacancies, to coax people to want to be here.

For new teachers that are coming out of the gate, that is a competitive salary and something right out the gate that's really going to help out.

For those of us that have been here, this will be my 17th year, it would be nice to see more than a one-time bonus.

A one-time bonus-- When you look at the difference between what a first-year teacher will be making, a 20-year teacher will be making, you're not going to see as large a difference there.

And the 20-year teacher has, frankly, put in their time.

Seeing a full reevaluation of the pay scale would be nice for those of us that have made our commitment here.

-I wanted to bring in a side note about the alternative path to licensure that CCSD had come up with.

That would be for teachers who, someone who wants to become a teacher but did not get a degree, let's say in education.

They got it in something else.

The Las Vegas Sun reported on August 1st that that program has been suspended due to lack of interest, which goes to show that there are not a lot of people out there wanting to be teachers at the moment.

How about student teachers?

How do they fit into this equation?

How helpful are they?

-I actually have one that started with me day one.

I had her for Practicum 1, so I'm really excited to bring her back.

And I know it's intriguing to watch and hear her viewpoint because going back to the Alternative Route to Licensure, I was an ARL teacher in 2013.

And we had a very-- We were one of the first cohorts.

And there was a bigger interest in that, that time.

Now it's so few and far between of getting student teachers in.

And I think that is just a testament of what are we going to see as far as, we already know the pipeline is shrinking.

So I know that my student teacher that's coming in, Skylar, she's really excited.

She wants to hit the ground running.

The last three that I've had are now working for CCSD.

So it has been a success.

They haven't just got up and left, which is really important, especially in our district.

We need the educators.

But that's scary again.

Normally this time of year, you will see these schools that are just flooded, right?

That they have all these bright eyed, excited new student teachers coming in.

And we're not seeing that.

-Marissa, what do you think about student teachers?

How quickly are they becoming teachers?

Are they prepared enough?

-I do believe-- I was also an ARL teacher, so I didn't have the benefit of being a student teacher.

So I do think it's a really valuable process, and they are often coming in to be employed directly in our schools as soon as they graduate.

But like you had mentioned, that pipeline is smaller and smaller and smaller.

And we see universities and colleges all over the country actually closing their teacher education programs because there's not enough interest to keep it going.

So again, I think we just get back to these deeper-seated issues where we have to address it.

So the pay jump is great, but a lot of veteran educators are very upset because that one-time bonus is $5,000.

I mean, if you're looking at a brand new teacher jumping to 50-, that's over 7,000 just one year.

-I want to move on to the topic of safety and how much training you have to go through.

But when you talk about student teachers and substitutes, how much do they have to know in regards to that?

Could it be a liability if they don't have enough training?

Or do they get enough training, I'm just asking.

Eric, do you want to jump in?

-To my understanding, and again this is just my understanding, they go through a lot of the same basic, like we have required videos and training that we have to do.

Whether or not it's as effective, certainly they're not as well-trained as we are in the classroom.

But at the end of the day, you need someone there, obviously, someone that has some level of training on it.

I can speak to the fact that I've had certain days where we've had a fire drill or something to that effect, where I had a substitute that happened to be in the room on the day that a drill was done, and they did not follow the protocol as it's supposed to be followed.

So they don't have the training specifically set for-- Not that schools differ much in this, but where does my class go to stand when we go out for the fire drill, et cetera.

So the minutia of being physically in my classroom where I know exactly where everything is and where everything needs to go and how, what the exact plan is, they don't have that because they're not in my classroom every day.

Marissa?

-At the end of the day, the substitute teacher is for all intents and purposes the teacher when you're gone.

And we don't know when emergencies are gonna happen or tragedies or other, any kind of concerns.

So at the end of the day, it's very important that they have the same level of training that we do.

-Some of what Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara has talked about as far as new safety measures and upgrades that have been installed over the summer.

He said CCSD police have recently taken part in some active assailant exercises along with local law enforcement.

He talked about recently an instant alert program that will be piloted in nine different CCSD campuses.

That is a badge where there is an alert system.

You can alert all sorts of staff of where your location is.

Kelley, I'm gonna ask you more about that in a bit, because you have actually experienced using that.

And then throughout the school year, more than 4,000 security cameras are going to be upgraded on campuses, as well as new fencing to prepare for changes in traffic flow for a single point of entry.

In addition to all of that, he had this to say about parental involvement to keep schools safe.

(Dr. Jesus Jara) Parents, I ask you, as you send your kids home, from home to our campuses, make sure you talk to them.

Make sure that you check their book bags.

Make sure that they are ready to learn.

You are the first line of defense.

Students, please know that we will continue to enforce the District Discipline Code of Conduct.

I can't emphasize enough, the safety of our students and our staff is of the utmost priority for me and for the School Board of Trustees.

-For the perspective on parental involvement, Lisa, anything you would like to add?

-In middle school, I feel like we don't have a ton of parental involvement.

There's definitely some, but a lot of times it seems to be more negative than positive.

And that gets hard as a teacher, too, when you're constantly doing what you feel is in the best interest of the child, and the parents disagree.

You know, it kind of goes back to being treated as professionals and knowing that we've been trained in how to teach our kids.

And, yes, you went to middle school, but that doesn't make you qualified to teach.

-Anybody want to add to that?

-A lot of the safety issues and involving parents comes down to trust, trust between the educator and the administration.

The administration trusts that when you write a behavior referral, that it's a true behavior referral, and then the teacher believing that the administration is going to take care of that.

And whether it's a disruption in the student's day by going to an in-house classroom or it's a parent-teacher conference, I think that's so important to let the rest of the class know that that behavior is not tolerated in the classroom, and the administration and everyone trusts each other and is on board with that.

And then also connecting with that student when they come back and say, and talk with them and say, hey, this is what happened.

Let's not let it happen again.

What can we do to move forward and be on the same page in the class?

And I think that's, again, trust and open communication is so important to safety in the school.

-Kristan?

-Yeah.

I was going to bring up the fact that we're seeing a lot.

In my 10 years of being in CCSD, it's a completely different animal as far as when we're talking about what we're seeing when it comes into the classroom.

A lot of behavior.

One of the things, though, that I know that all the educators out here and CCSD, what they're doing is it really goes down to starting in primary level, building relationships.

That's the biggest piece because, don't get me wrong, there's always going to be that one, one or two students that are maybe going to act out or continue to act out.

But we are a family in my classroom.

When I am in there, those are my babies.

I take care of them as if I would do with my seven year old.

And so I find that, you know, having that type of environment has definitely helped and kind of shut down a lot of the behaviors that we're seeing, which is scary.

-Eric?

-I was gonna say that we should probably start with the fact that if there were easy solutions, we'd have done them already.

And these problems are bigger than any of us.

And it commentaries on society as a whole right now.

But that being said, when we're in the classroom, finding the best solution between the teachers, the administrators, the parents, and the students to bring it together and recognize that we're all on the same page here.

We're all on the same side.

We're not one against the other.

Safety in a classroom is paramount for a student's learning.

They can't learn if they're afraid.

-At the same time, you don't want it to feel like a prison.

-Yeah.

-Right?

It's a double-edged sword, because bringing those families into our schools is the best way to build relationships.

-Absolutely.

-And the statistics are all there.

When you have family engagement, student academic performance and behavior improves exponentially.

So we're talking about single-point entrances.

With COVID, with security issues, it has really sort of pushed our families out of the school.

So, yes, we want to be secure.

The kids have to feel safe.

We're constantly doing drills with them.

I have seven year olds in my class, and I have to explain to them why we have to wait when the fire alarm goes off, to make sure that no one is trying to shoot at us or hurt us in some way.

And these are tough conversations to have with young students, but we have to have them.

And we want to pull those parents in, but how do we do that safely?

-And, Lisa, we had talked prior to this about, how much should students know about these drills?

Does it empower them to perhaps if they wanted to do something on their own?

Maybe they know a little bit too much.

-Yeah.

That was one of the most terrifying things to me.

After the most recent shooting, I saw a TikTok where the guy said these kids that are going in and shooting the schools have grown up in the age of active shooter drills, of hard lockdowns.

So they know what the procedures are going to be and what's going to happen when they go into the school, which gives them a chance to think about ways that they can circumvent that.

And to me, that's the most terrifying thing.

-I want to make sure we get to everybody's hopes for this upcoming school year.

We have about three minutes left.

There was one question I didn't get to ask you, Kelley; and that was about if staffing shortages would result in some classes not being offered.

Do you worry about Drama getting cut?

-Maybe not so much Drama.

There's definitely an interest.

I think if there wasn't a theater teacher, yes.

Fine arts, art, core orchestra, choir, band, theater--all of those, they would be the first ones to get cut because they aren't those core classes that it's going to get a student a diploma.

It's unfortunate, because those are the classes that kids come to school for, for the most part.

-Your hopes for this upcoming school year?

-I hope for better attendance.

I think with the pandemic last year, there were a lot of kids that were like, I still want to stay home.

And so I hope for better attendance because we can do more with them when they're in the classroom.

And then just after this conversation, I just hope that maybe we can encourage other people out there to become teachers, because it really is a rewarding profession, regardless of all of this.

It's definitely one that I've committed my life to.

-Lisa?

-I hope we can kind of maybe go back a little bit more to normal.

I think last year we kind of started, and I think that not all but some of these issues, maybe will-- -You're talking about with masks and interaction?

-Yeah.

It was hard teaching the kids in a mask.

It was hard.

You couldn't recognize them when they came in with their masks.

So just being able to build those relationships, see their faces, let them see my face, and just kind of, again, with the attendance that they're there, that they're showing up, that they want to learn.

-Kristan?

-Mine's short and sweet.

I just hope for big learning, big smiles, and a lot of excitement in kindergarten.

That is how I thrive in my career.

-And you're hoping that a lot of those kindergarteners have gone to preschool or taken advantage of that?

-Oh, yes.

Very much, yes.

I really do need that in my life, because that would be a very, very nice segue into what we're going to be doing in the classroom.

-All right.

Marissa?

-I would definitely like to see improved attendance, as well.

It's a big one for us as teachers, to just keep that consistency.

But also improve community relations, just building those relationships with families, people feeling maybe a little bit more safe after COVID, and different things like that.

But just really building our community back up.

-And, Eric?

-I would like to see excitement and enthusiasm from my students.

I want them to want to be there.

And that makes our jobs just generally easier, because we want to be there.

And if they want to be there, too, hopefully we can have a great year.

-Has that always been an issue, lack of enthusiasm, or is it recent?

-I'd say it's student to student, year to year.

It just depends in that regards.

But that being said, I have a class where most of my students come in, and they're excited to be there.

I've already had about 12 students come in yesterday just to say hello and get excited for the year.

-Thank you all so much for being here.

We wish you the best for this upcoming school year, 2022-2023.

For any of the resources that we discussed on this show, please go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter @VegasPBS.

And I will see you next week on Nevada Week.

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