Rulffes wants Rice for new post

The Board of Regents is to decide later this week whether a recently retired Clark County School District administrator will be hired for a newly created position aimed at retaining teachers in Southern Nevada.

Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes wants to put his former colleague George Ann Rice into the job, according to back-up documents for an item on the agenda for the regents’ Thursday meeting in Reno. Rice would be in charge of a joint effort involving the school district and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

UNLV would pay Rice $45,000 annually and the school district would pay her an additional $50,000 annually to oversee the creation and operation of a center for the study of teaching. The new center would be expected to produce analyses of student performance and teacher retention.

Rice worked for the district for 33 years and was associate superintendent of human resources when she retired in March with an annual salary of $122,340. Dave Tonelli, a spokesman with UNLV, said Tuesday that he did not believe the new job would bolster Rice’s retirement pay from the state’s Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS.

The reference materials indicate that Rulffes proposed the joint agreement and that he has the support of Jim Rogers, the Nevada System of Higher Education chancellor, regarding hiring Rice.

But the prospect of rehiring a retired state employee for a newly created position doesn’t sit well with at least one principal in the Clark County School District, and it also raised questions from two regents Tuesday.

Ronan Matthew, principal of Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas and frequent critic of the district, sees it as an case of Rulffes trying to “take care of his friends.”

Matthew said the proposal also is “a way to circumvent the School Board.”

“I’m not surprised because that’s par for the course of how business is being done in the school district,” he added.

The Clark County School Board voted 4-3 against hiring Rice as a consultant for $24,000 in early March. That proposal had called for Rice to lead an effort to create low-income housing for teachers in Southern Nevada.

Regent Steve Sisolak said he has a few questions about the initiative, including whom Rice would directly answer to if hired. He said he also wants to know whether the position was created for her.

“I don’t believe in designing a position to fit a person,” Sisolak said. But, he added, if an exhaustive search was done in order to fill the job, and if a common goal can be met by the district and UNLV, then he might support the hire.

“I haven’t made a decision,” Sisolak said. “She comes very highly regarded.”

Rulffes said Tuesday he doesn’t care if the regents hire Rice. But he does support funding the initiative because, he said, it’s a worthy cause.

“Our commitment to UNLV is strictly based on the project,” Rulffes said. “If they want to hire George Ann Rice, we think she’ll do fine.”

Rulffes said he can name several instances in which a recently retired school employee was hired by a higher education institution in Nevada. Sisolak said the practice is common. According to materials from the agenda, state law allows for such a hire.

Rogers and UNLV President David Ashley could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Regent Michael Wixom said the question of whether to hire Rice has to be closely scrutinized.

“It may be that what we’re trying to accomplish outweighs the PERS issue,” Wixom said. “Whenever you bring someone back collecting PERS we have to make sure there is justification. … I’m looking for the justification.”