Laid Off Clark County Teachers Rehired
August 15, 2012 11:55 am
Four hundred and nineteen Clark County School District teachers were rehired at the end of last week after spending the summer believing they were laid off. In a stroke of unbelievable serendipity, the Las Vegas teachers — who were laid off under the guise of the district not having adequate funds to pay them for the upcoming school year — were reinstated after funds magically appeared.
According to local ABC station KTNV, “the school district says because more teachers retired or left than originally anticipated, they had enough opening for every teacher that had been cut.” However, in a Letter to the Editor of the Las Vegas Sun, the “previous year’s statistics show very little increase in” the number of resignations and retirements, leading many to conclude the money was previously available and the threat of layoffs was a union-busting tactic.
The residents of Clark County, Nevada, and in particular parents of students in Areas 1, 2 and 3 of the school district, have been particularly vocal in their support for teachers and their condemnation of the district’s tactics that gambled teachers’ jobs and children’s education.
Although all the laid off teachers will be returning to the district, many of them will be reassigned and brought back to classes with an increase of two to three students per classroom.
Image of Durango High School, Clark County School District, Nevada, from here.