Classes canceled at 4 Las Vegas Valley schools Tuesday due to shortage of teachers

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Classes were canceled on Tuesday at a school in the southwest Las Vegas Valley due to a teacher shortage.

The school advised of the closure in a notice sent to parents, as well as, a notice posted on its website:

“This is Principal Donna Levy. We are canceling school today at Southwest CTA. Please do not send your children to campus today, Tuesday, September 12th. There are an unexpected number of licensed staff/teachers absent from school today and we have made the difficult decision to not have school today. We appreciate your understanding and apologize for the inconvenience. I will send you a message later today to provide additional information regarding classes for tomorrow. Thank you.”

When reached by phone on Tuesday, an office worker at a second school, Twitchell Elementary School in Henderson, confirmed that classes were also canceled at its campus.

Additionally, shortly after reporting the closures at Twitchell and Southwest CTA, parents reached out to FOX5 to inform that classes were also canceled at Sig Rogich Middle School and Gwendolyn Woolley Elementary School.

CCSD confirmed the four school closures in an email, citing “a high number of unexpected teacher absences.” The statement can be read below:

“Due to a high number of unexpected teacher absences, the following schools have canceled classes for Tuesday, September 12, 2023.

Southwest Career and Technical Academy

Sig Rogich Middle School

Gwendolyn Woolley Elementary School

Neil C. Twitchell Elementary School”

The city of Henderson announced that it will again offer the Battle Born Kids program at the Henderson Multigenerational Center for families impacted by the unexpected closure of Twitchell Elementary.

The cancellation of classes comes after the Clark County School District on Monday afternoon announced that it had submitted an emergency motion to seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop recent teacher “sickouts.”

In a news release, CCSD categorized the recent call-ins as “a strike by licensed educators represented by CCEA.”

“The actions of licensed educators have forced the closure of three CCSD schools and severely disrupted the operations of two additional schools through a targeted and coordinated rolling-sickout strike,” the CCSD statement stated.

FOX5 visited all four affected schools Tuesday afternoon, finding parking lots almost empty.

CCSD parent and substitute teacher Stephanie Valdez shared her frustrations: “This is a community issue. This is not just about the teachers and the district. This is impacting the entire community. It’s impacting families, it’s impacting students, it’s impacting parents who have to take off work or make different arrangements. So let’s resolve this. This is ridiculous.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more callouts if a contract is not negotiated,” added Valdez. “I don’t think that teachers are calling out in any way to disrespect parents. I know that they know it impacts their students and their families, and I don’t think that they are wanting to make this any harder, but honestly, the frustration needs to be directed at the district for continuing this for so long.”

”They need to pay and negotiate a contract,” said another CCSD parents John Petrini. “Everybody else is taken care of, however, the teachers are not. They’re the most important resource we have in this community, and I don’t know why they’re not paying the teachers. So if they have to do this sort of thing, then I’m fine with it.”

Copyright 2023 KVVU. All rights reserved.