[unf0rgiven6262]

Because it's a largely thankless job in a city that values education very little. Combine that with the fact that Nevada has the highest proportion of illegal aliens and it's a nightmare for an english speaking teacher.

[TristramShandy]

Originally Posted by orca17

Salaries are better elsewhere, and depending upon the school you may spend time that should be spent teaching course material going over remedial English.

My wife teaches in Chula Vista, the last big population center before you hit the border. About 80-85% of her kids are of Mexican descent, so the shock wouldn't be as big for us as with other people moving to the area. However, her students have a pretty good grasp of English (9th grade) - - from what I'm reading here, that doesn't necessarily sound like Las Vegas, though.

[lvoc]

It is more complicated than this indicates. First off the district has grown by large increments over the last decades. The system has never caught up. It did reduce employment in the recession but that was driven by a budgetary failure rather than dropping enrollment.

Most of the teachers run happily on. They are not badly paid...that is true only of new hires. They also slot new teachers into the rough assignments which in turn leads to high turnover initially. Some of the schools are pretty bad...they have very high percentage of substitutes and have a transient and poor student demographic.

Others are quite nice with strong demographics and involved parents. Guess where the capable senior teachers all end up?

The student population has a high Hispanic content. The district is majority minority. Bilingual and specialty teachers are always in demand.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by lvoc

It is more complicated than this indicates. First off the district has grown by large increments over the last decades. The system has never caught up. It did reduce employment in the recession but that was driven by a budgetary failure rather than dropping enrollment.

Most of the teachers run happily on. They are not badly paid...that is true only of new hires. They also slot new teachers into the rough assignments which in turn leads to high turnover initially. Some of the schools are pretty bad...they have very high percentage of substitutes and have a transient and poor student demographic.

Others are quite nice with strong demographics and involved parents. Guess where the capable senior teachers all end up?

The student population has a high Hispanic content. The district is majority minority. Bilingual and specialty teachers are always in demand.

What he said, and: “If (enrollment) growth remains at 1 percent at the elementary level, we will need two new elementary school every year each year for the next 10 years.”

CCSD prepares for $500 million in school construction, repair | Las Vegas Review-Journal

[amattern]

I'm moving to Las Vegas this summer, have a WV teaching license which is reciprocal in Nevada, but am choosing not to continue my teaching career. I have seven years of experience, so I may substitute if I need to for monetary reasons. The stories about overcrowding have made me make this decision. An overcrowded classroom is my WORST nightmare as a teacher- it only leads to horrible discipline issues and being insanely overworked, not only during class time but by the amount of papers you have to grade in the evenings and on weekends. The pay is actually about 4-5,000 dollars more a year than what I'm making in WV, but I think our state might be THE lowest paying state for teachers. We also have a very low cost of living, but still.

Oh, I also find the CCSD Board of Education really hard to deal with. For a district that needs so many teachers, they don't seem too interested in answering questions from people who want to work there. I attended an online job fair and just kept getting referred back to their website. Exact same thing when I e-mailed and called the Board. I have very specific questions that I couldn't find answers to on the website. It shouldn't be like pulling teeth to get some help.

[NeedSun25]

Just curious...why would you direct questions to the Board and not to their HR department?

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by amattern

... Oh, I also find the CCSD Board of Education really hard to deal with. For a district that needs so many teachers, they don't seem too interested in answering questions from people who want to work there...

That is because the public sector employees of the CCSD Board of Education cannot lose the jobs or pensions for being "...really hard to deal with." They cannot lose their jobs or their pensions for not being "...interested in answering questions."

It is a very large bureaucracy, and most such bureaucracies exist to sustain themselves rather than to facilitate actual learning.

[ScoopLV]

Other than long wait times, I've found the CCSD office on Flamingo to be pleasant and competent. My wife has had many employment and benefit questions and they've always been helpful -- once we got off hold, that is.

[Everdeen]

Originally Posted by NeedSun25

Just curious...why would you direct questions to the Board and not to their HR department?

The person to whom you were responding was referring to the State Board of Education, which issues Nevada Teaching licenses. Not the CCSD Board.

And he or she is right. They are a nightmare to deal with.

A word to the wise: get everything from the State Board in writing. Everything. Take names, dates, and times. Every teacher I know has had problems with them.

If you can get them to correspond by email, all the better. You are better off dealing with the Carson City office for that. The Las Vegas office is shameful.

[NeedSun25]

That makes more sense. Thanks, Everdeen.