Cyndi Loza

Lindsay Velianoff has never been more nervous to start school on Monday.

“This time around, I’m the new kid on the block and school isn’t just about learning,” Velianoff said.

Velianoff, 31, joined the Peavine Elementary School faculty this fall as a first-year, fifth-grade teacher. She is one of more than 250 new teachers the district hired this year.

“Parents are putting their child’s education and future in my hands, and they’re trusting me to take their child to the next level,” Velianoff said. “I feel that responsibility greater (now) than when I was substituting and student teaching.”

Some new teachers found a larger number of open positions within the district this year, which they attributed to the early retirement of district administrators and teachers.

Under Senate Bill 544, local government employees must retire by Sept. 1, 2008, if they want to remain in the state’s Public Employees’ Benefits Program by the Nov. 30 enrollment deadline. If they do not retire in September, they will lose a state subsidy to their health insurance premiums, which range from $91 to $502 a month.

The change will affect all employees who work for local governments and governmental agencies, including teachers, principals and other administrators in school districts across Nevada.

Tom Stauss, assistant superintendent for human resources, said the number of educators who retired this year seems higher than previous years.

“It appears the numbers are up over last years,” Stauss said. “The good news is we’re filling all our allocations with qualified teachers.”

The number of educators retiring this fall opened more opportunities for new teachers to enter the classroom, said Stacy Smith, first-year social studies teachers at O’Brien Middle School.

“It was just kind of a benefit for me,” said Smith, who added that teaching positions for social studies are often coveted. “It just happened that I graduated at the right time and I finished my student teaching at a right time.”

Chris Moll, 32, of Carnelian Bay, said he jumped at the offer to be a science teacher.

“I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a teacher,” said Moll, an eighth-grade science teacher at O’Brien. “I’d rather be in a class full of kids. The energy they bring, the questions they ask — by the end of the school year, you just care so much about them.”

Spanish Springs resident Cindy Kimball, 53, said she decided to return as a teacher to Hug High School, her alma mater.

“I’ve always been very lucky in my life, and I wanted to give back,” said Kimball, an English teacher at the school. “Hug was the first place that I thought of because it gave so much to me.”

To work through the first-year jitters, Velianoff plans to meet with fellow first-year teachers at least monthly to compare notes on their teaching methods, successes and problems.

“It’s a little less intimidating than asking, sometimes, a seasoned veteran because when we’re at school, we’re asking seasoned veterans all day long for help,” Velianoff said “So, it’s a little embarrassing. You don’t want to look like you know next to nothing.”