Mercedes Krause remembers the moment when Clark County School District campuses shut down in March 2020—and the sad realization that followed.

“We thought we were going see our students on Monday, and I’ve never seen those kids again,” says Krause, a second-grade teacher at Gene Ward Elementary. “It’s traumatizing when you’re a teacher, [because] your class, I mean, they’re your babies.”

Though CCSD campuses are currently open, the start of 2022 has served as an eerie reminder of that tough start to the ongoing pandemic. A surge of omicron, COVID’s latest—and extremely contagious—variant, recently pushed the district to take a five-day pause, from January 14-18. In a statement, CCSD explained the break was initiated “due to the extreme staffing shortages based on the high number of positive COVID-19 cases.”

Dr. Monica Cortez, assistant superintendent for CCSD, expanded on that explanation in a conversation with the Weekly just before the pause. “We truly believe that this five-day pause will give us an opportunity to be healthy, to get tested, to get vaccinated or boosted and stop the spread,” she said. “So we really are encouraging [staff to stay home]. We know it’s going to be an inconvenience, but we feel it’s for the best interest of all of our students and staff in the long run.”

After schools resumed in-person classes on January 19, CCSD emailed an update to parents. “The pause allowed school employees to recuperate and gave nurses time to catch up on a backlog of calls to process COVID cases within the district.” According to the email, 2,324 students and 1,068 employees who had been in contact with the district about COVID concerns had been cleared to return to school after the pause.

Still, Vicki Kreidel, a second grade English teacher at Lomie G. Heard Elementary and president of the National Education Association of Southern Nevada, said she heard both students and teachers talking about using the five-day pause to go on trips.

“We have no control over what people are doing during the five-day pause,” she said. “If you’re using the five-day pause to go out and potentially expose yourself or your family to COVID, then we’re going to have the same situation when we go back.”

At press time, CCSD’s website listed some alarming statistics: 15,618 total COVID cases districtwide—4,320 among school staff, 1,081 among central office staff and 10,217 among students. Cases were highest at elementary schools with 6,481 cases, compared to 5,021 at high schools and 2,678 at middle schools.

Krause says trying to keep her young students safe has been extremely stressful for her, making it difficult to create a joyful classroom environment. News of the pause hit particularly hard, she adds. “I was really struggling to keep [one student] social distanced, because she just wanted to sit next to me all day in class both days [prior to the pause],” she says. “I think the kids are nervous.”

Keeping masks on young children has also been challenging, Krause says, explaining that she utilizes a reward system and consistently reminds her students about the importance of masks. “I don’t want to be at fault if someone in their household gets sick because they carry the illness home,” she says. “That part weighs on my heart.”

Ian Latas, a social studies teacher at Legacy High, says he also faces emotional challenges with his students, some of whom are missing the normal opportunities to socialize with peers as they attempt to limit their exposure to COVID. He says it has also been tough for some to reach a level of consistency in their school work after switching from in-person learning to remote learning and back again.

And, Kreidel adds, some of her students have been through additional trauma caused by the pandemic, such as deaths in the family, a parent’s job loss or having been stuck inside an abusive household. “Tons of behavior issues, at a level I’ve never seen,” she says. “There’s so much being piled onto educators, and we’re given tasks that we don’t even have training to do, like being a counselor to the kids and trying to get to the bottom of [those] behavior issues.”

Such challenges have been compounded by a labor shortage as educators walk away from the profession. According to Kreidel, the school district had 860 teaching vacancies prior to the 2021 winter break, and she says it’s likely that number has grown since.

There’s also a shortage of substitutes. Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association, says that, because substitutes don’t receive benefits, it has been even tougher to attract them during the pandemic. Should they contact COVID, they would neither be able to work nor receive any pay.

So local educators are working overtime, Neisess stresses, sometimes substituting for others and often working through their preparation period. “They’re just burned out. They’re extending their day [beyond] their seven hour and 11-minute contract day,” she says.

“I’m concerned about the future of our schools, because so many teachers I know are saying, ‘I’m done. I’m looking for a job outside of education. This is no longer worth it,’” Kreidel says. “So, what’s going to happen is, they’re going to end up having a shortage of certificated teachers, and they’re going to end up just hiring anybody who will take the job.”

On January 13, in an attempt to retain educators, CCSD approved a $1,000 bonus for regular and full-time employees who were employed as of January 1, according to a recent press release. An additional $1,000 bonus will be paid to regular and full-time employees who are employed on May 25.