Recruiting blitz on even as teachers await layoffs
School District has dozens of openings in specialized subjects
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Clark County teachers sweating out the budget crisis(4-22-2010)
- ‘Almost catastrophic’ budget cuts on horizon for Clark County schools (4-22-2010)
- Clark County teachers face peer pressure on furloughs (4-9-2010)
- School Board rejects moving schools to nine-month calendar (3-26-2010)
- Year-round schools could face calendar shift to save money(3-16-2010)
- Teachers resist increasing pressure to accept pay cuts(2-5-2010)
- Budget crunch puts shorter school year, teacher pay cuts on table (2-4-2010)
- Gibbons: School districts should brace for 10 percent cuts (2-2-2010)
- State budget comes up $800 million short (1-22-2010)
- State budget director: Prep for another 10 percent cut (12-15-2009)
Sun Archives
Beyond the Sun
Here’s one of the paradoxes facing the Clark County School District: Even as hundreds of teachers await word on whether their positions are being eliminated, recruiters are on a nationwide hunt to fill hundreds of critical, hard-to-fill jobs.
Among them are 19 math, 27 science and 22 special education teaching jobs at the middle school level, and 32 math, 28 science and 43 special ed teaching positions at the high school level.
Those numbers are expected to increase this summer as teachers quit, retire or move up to administrative positions. Filling those vacancies isn’t as easy as shuffling the existing pool of teachers, because not everyone is qualified for the high-need areas, nor does everyone want those jobs.
The teachers sought by the district are supposed to be “highly qualified,” meaning they have demonstrated competence in the subject areas they teach. In most cases teachers earn endorsements on their licenses by passing national exams.
The district intends to eliminate about 540 teaching positions in grades 1-3, a result of class-size increases approved by the Legislature to help close a $145 million deficit in state funding. The majority of those teachers are unlikely to be qualified to fill vacancies at the secondary level.
The district will try to find them alternative teaching positions before the school year begins in August.
But it’s almost certain that the district will still need to hire math, science and special ed teachers by August, as well as school nurses, speech pathologists and other licensed personnel.
Over the past 10 months, the School District has sent volunteer recruiters — pulled from the administrative ranks — across the country to look for teaching talent. There have been 32 trips in all, costing about $85,000 in federal grant funding. (And no, that money can’t be redirected for another purpose. If the district doesn’t use it for recruiting, it loses it. )
They’ve gone to places such as a national science teachers convention in Philadelphia and a conference in Boston of educators who teach English as a second language. And