Charlie Walsh, assistant principal of athletics, activities, buildings and grounds at Sparks High School, said he misses the student/teacher relationship he once enjoyed in the classroom. Though he is still deeply involved with the students by way of athletics, he now works in other functions, and that is a big tradeoff for most school administrators.

“You’re still helping kids,” Walsh said. “It’s all about the kids. It’s just in a different capacity. … What we do directly or indirectly, the kids have no idea what we do behind the scenes.”

Walsh is in his fourth year as assistant principal and 10th year at Sparks High. He is the lead among three assistant principals, so when Principal Doug Parry is out of the office, Walsh takes his spot.

“Every assistant principal finds his own niche,” Walsh said. “It’s the best job in the district.”

It might, however, be a tough job for some schools to fill. Recently, the Washoe County School District has run into a lack of qualified people to apply for vacant positions, leading some schools to tap retired employees to fill the void. A law passed by the 2009 Nevada Legislature that grants authority to each school district’s board of trustees to hire retirees into hard-to-fill positions, such as assistant principals or special education teachers, was put in front of the Washoe County School District’s trustees on Aug. 25. The board approved filling four critical labor shortage positions, or vacancies that are considered difficult to hire for, by rehiring retired employees.

“We found it was very difficult to find assistant principals at the high school level,” said Dawn Huckaby, human resources coordinator for the district.

To be called a critical labor shortage position, the new law, Assembly Bill 488, requires consideration of four factors, including history of rate of turnover for the position, the number of openings and number of qualified candidates, the length of time the position has been vacant and the difficulty in filling the position because of special circumstances and the history and success of efforts to hire for the position.

A screening takes place for applicants followed by a series of interviews, based on the candidate’s qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills, Huckaby said. After the screening, the assistant princpal pool was small. Six candidates were called for level one interviews, after which one withdrew their application. Two of the five remaining candidates were not considered “suitable” for the job, according to the board meeting staff report, and three candidates were further interviewed on site. One chose not to accept a position at North Valleys High School, one of the two schools in need of an assistant principal, and another chose a position at Wooster High School. The last candidate did not qualify for North Valleys.

“We are focused on providing the best to those (high school) students so that they can graduate, career-ready or college-ready,” Huckaby said.

Last week, district staff reported to the board that the two assistant principal positions at North Valleys and Reed High School had yet to be filled. Two special education teachers were also still vacant at Sparks Middle School and Washoe High School.

According to Reed Principal Mary Vesco, the high school just recently filled its vacancy.

“I was very happy,” Vesco said. “The person we got was coming out of retirement. We are just fine.”

Reed’s position was opened for transfer on July 21. A district staff report said no one applied for the transfer; however, 96 candidates were screened to find new applicants. Eighty-eight were not considered qualified and two lost interest in the job.

North Valleys, according to a staff report, had an exhaustive pool of candidates. That job was open for transfer on June 1.

The district experienced a large increase of employees who retired last year, creating more positions WCSD needed to fill.

“There were a lot of people that school districts and other government agencies lost because there was a change that was going to occur with retiree benefits,” Huckaby said. “That caused a lot of people to leave. We found there were more positions we needed to fill and that has a domino effect. The principals leaving affects the assistant principals. The assistant principals leaving affects the certified employees.”

Most assistant principals climb the educational ranks of advancement, with most starting as teachers and being trained into administrative positions over time while others are hired from other districts, Huckaby said. The district also looked outside Washoe County for applicants.

At the Aug. 25 board meeting, Trustee Ken Grein inquired about the district’s pool of qualified candidates.

“That caught my attention,” Grein said. “Is there something we can do better? We have a principal’s academy. Don’t we have a pool of deans? Are we really at the point where we don’t have someone out there that could step into principal’s positions from dean positions? I went back to AB488 and it sounds like you have to be in a pretty critical situation. … Why are we here? What are we doing wrong that we don’t have someone (for these jobs)?”

Tom Stauss, assistant superintendent of human resources, said the district has hired a large number of assistant principals in the last two years and that critical labor shortage will not help the district in the long run.

“It’s best to hire someone who will be here on a long-term basis,” he said. “I think there probably are additional things that we can do.”

Deputy superintendent Rick Harris said there are some potential young deans who could be suitable for assistant principal positions in the future.

“Our philosophy is we don’t take a chance,” he said. “It’s the same thing with the classroom. If we feel we have to go back and get veterans in these positions, we will.”