Clark County School District teacher hiring campaign hits overdrive
The Clark County School District`s human resources team is spending June scouring the nation`s colleges and launching other efforts to pack Two,600 training positions opening inbetween February and the commence of the school year.
The $Ten million that state lawmakers approved to help recruit fresh teachers may not arrive in Clark County School District coffers for several more weeks.
But that`s not stopping its human resources team from spending June – the most critical hiring month of the year – scouring the nation`s colleges of education for latest graduates, suggesting accelerated training programs online and even buying an advertisement in Times Square.
With Two,600 instructing positions to pack inbetween February and the embark of the school year, their efforts also included hiring four full-time recruiters, creating a fresh social wellness program to help retain more beginning teachers and hoping tourists haven`t imbibed too much before recruitment commercials play inwards area taxicabs.
At very first glance, those efforts seem to be paying off.
The district as of last week had hired almost 1,100 fresh teachers since April – a fifteen percent build up from the same time last year. It now has 1,069 more vacancies to pack before the end of August.
Additionally, fewer fresh or first-year teachers have left the district, and enrollment in fast-track teacher training more than doubled from two hundred six in the 2013-14 school year to four hundred seventy two in the current year.
«Things are going well,» said Staci Vesneske, chief human resources officer for the district.
With a stack of spreadsheets at her side, Vesneske cited figure after figure that suggested a strong comeback on investment for the $1 million that the district allocated last year to fund an intense hiring campaign.
She specifically highlighted a statistic displaying that the district has hired four hundred twelve teachers who are fresh to Clark County but have classroom practice on their résumés. That`s a one hundred fifty percent increase from the number of similar hires made this time last year.
«That`s a positive,» Vesneske said. «You want to hire people who have practice.
«That`s due to our advertising efforts, very likely due to our weather and a lot of things, but to have that big of an increase, that`s not negligible,» she added. «Had we not done this campaign, I would be very startled.»
Still, Vesneske doesn`t just concentrate on the positives.
Among the negatives:
■ Almost a quarter of the teachers hired inbetween April and June have no classroom practice, up from 16.9 percent last year.
■ The number of retirees or teachers leaving for other reasons rose by more than 100.
■ Colleges and universities in Nevada optimistically will produce 1,300 teacher candidates this year.
■ California, which supplies the most out-of-state candidates for the district, anticipates hiring 21,500 teachers statewide – the largest such figure there in a decade.
That`s also not accounting for the intense recruiting efforts of other school districts in Nevada and the rest of the nation, extra positions that the district must pack to sate fresh state mandates and the typical three hundred to four hundred teachers who will retire or resign before August.
«Let`s see, and we haven`t even mentioned support staff, administrators or substitutes and coaches,» said Meg Nigro, the school district`s executive director of recruitment and development. «Now I`m stressed.»
What troubles Nigro and Vesneske most is the sheer number of vacancies in special education and at-risk elementary schools.
Of the current 1,069 classroom vacancies, more than eight hundred fifty – or eighty percent – influence the neediest students in very first through fifth grade and in special education.
«When people think about vacancies, it should be a concern,» Vesneske said. «It`s certainly a concern for us, but I think it`s significant to know the vacancies are not evenly spread. It`s so intensely skewed.»
Cue the state incentives.
In the final moments of their recently concluded session, lawmakers approved Senate Bill five hundred eleven to suggest $Ten million each year over the next two years in local incentives for freshly hired teachers to work in at-risk and poorly performing schools.
Districts have until July six to submit an application for those funds, with a cap of $Five,000 per individual per year, and the State Board of Education will make an initial decision on allocations at its July twenty three meeting. Local school boards can determine to use the money for signing bonuses, salary increases and more.
«Even tho’ it won`t be available soon, we are already advertising that about $Four,000 to $Five,000 will be available,» Vesneske said, adding that some recently hired teachers already have asked about the incentives.
Packing THE GAPS
Other third-party organizations also have attempted to help the district chip away at its overall hiring aim.
Instruct for America, a nonprofit group that places latest college graduates at needy schools for two years, extended its contract with the district in December to expand local membership from one hundred fifty fresh teachers to one hundred seventy five fresh teachers annually over the next three years.
Nationally, however, a hiccup in the group`s own recruitment efforts has drawn a smaller pool of applicants, and Instruct For America will place one hundred fifteen teachers in Clark County schools this year.
Meantime, at Fremont Middle School near Charleston Boulevard and Maryland Parkway, education professors from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have hosted an intense, five-week teacher training program for an inaugural class of twenty professionals with backgrounds in the military, hospitality, engineering and culinary arts.
The so-called Rebel Academy, which enrolled about six dozen middle school students for free summer courses, offers the twenty teacher candidates a chance to earn enough classroom practice to apply for a training license. The candidates will proceed their studies at UNLV to finish a master`s degree while training utter time in the district.
«It`s something that`s always been in my DNA,» said Bentley McDonald, a 27-year-old community organizer who created the local nonprofit Real Education Matters to inspire minority students to care more about school.
While he has heard of the teacher incentives available soon through the state, McDonald said that`s not why he hopes to work at an at-risk middle school kicking off in August.
«That`s where you can make the greatest influence on a community,» he said. «They do have fine incentives, but for me it`s not about the money.»