Staffing shortages compound struggles in Vegas area schools

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Teachers, bus drivers and other support staff are quitting their jobs in Las Vegas-area schools, compounding the problems facing students and employees in the Clark County School District nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic.

The vacancies have forced administrators to divert classroom aides from their roles helping students overcome learning loss to empty classrooms, increased class sizes due to lack of licensed teachers and forced principals to take up cleaning duties in schools without enough janitors, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“Quite honestly, there just doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight,” said Darryl Wyatt, principal at Bailey Middle School in Las Vegas. “It’s definitely taking a toll on everybody.”

As schools prepare to confront the spread of new coronavirus variants, staffing will be a central concern for those aiming to keep doors open for in-person learning. Schools throughout the country have already canceled classes, incorporated remote learning and returned to hybrid models and, in Massachusetts, even enlisted the National Guard to staff school buses to fill vacant driver positions.

In Nevada, where K-12 student performance has long been near the bottom of the nation’s rankings, the staffing shortages are reversing progress made to reduce inequality, decrease class size and provide supplemental assistance to struggling students.

Schools in more affluent parts of Clark County such as Henderson told the Review-Journal that they weren’t experiencing staffing problems like their counterparts in north and east Las Vegas. The newspaper reported that teaching vacancies had spiked by more than 21% in the 40,000-employee district since the start of the school year. The district now has 850 licensed employee vacancies, 240 vacant bus driver positions and 731 support staff vacancies are listed on its website.

At school board meetings, the district has reported losing more teachers and administrators than it has been able to hire. Teachers have pointed to overcrowded classes and lacking COVID-19 safety protocols as reasons for low morale.

Wyatt, the principal at Bailey Middle School, said staffing issues require him to combine two or three classrooms and move students into larger spaces like a gym or library. Employees who normally work as counselors or administrators roam the spaces to help students working through online lesson plans while a teacher works through a lesson plan with a smaller group of students.

Students often have to wait up to 75 minutes for the bus home due to the driver shortage.

Principals throughout the area say they’re worried about growing class sizes, not being able to help students who fell behind while at home last year and maintaining a safe environment to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

They’re emptying trash cans at night because custodians who remain are already working overtime and principals are also donning hairnets and serving lunch to make up for a lack of cafeteria workers.

“I like serving lunch, so that’s alright,” said Spring Valley High School Principal Tara Powell.