Prospecting for teachers, Clark County School District reaches out to local veterans

Hoping to fill some of its nearly 500 teaching vacancies, the Clark County School District reached out to local veterans Saturday morning, harping on two key traits that make veterans a great fit for classrooms.

The first is that former military members have an affinity for structure and discipline. The second and more important quality for teaching, school district volunteer George Ann Rice said, is that veterans are committed to serving their communities.

“Besides the vacancies, these are people have already made the commitment to serve,” said Rice, the Clark County School District’s former superintendent for human resources. “It’s a chance for them to serve again.”

Rice was mistress of ceremonies Saturday’s Veterans and Spouses Career Fair at Eldorado High School, 1139 N. Linn Lane. She introduced representatives from CCSD, UNLV, National University and other accredited schools offering Alternative Routes to Licensure programs for people interested in teaching. On Saturday, the focus was on recruiting military veterans.

Dan Baiza, 49, spent three years in the army and five years in the National Guard before retiring and becoming a teacher in California. He taught elementary school for 13 years there and has lived in Nevada for eight years, selling insurance and working as a legal secretary.

Now, Baiza wants to get his teaching license in Clark County so he can teach high school science and be closer to his daughter, who started ninth grade this year.

How did his military training prepare him for the job?

“You have to have a cool head and a lot of patience, and that helps,” Baiza said.

At Saturday’s event, Ross Bryant, the director of the Military and Veteran Services Center at UNLV, walked prospective teachers through their financial options and connected them with the university’s resources, including its Alternative Routes to Licensure program and its partnership with the national Peer Advisors for Veteran Education program.

“You’re reminded every day you’re no longer on the A team when you get a civilian job or you’re in the community and they’re not as organized, they’re not as structured, there’s no chain of command,” Bryant said. “It’s hard because you’re trying to transition and figure out what to do next.”

Bryant said teaching is a good fit for transitioning veterans because they’re giving back to the community, something that’s familiar to them. His job is pairing veterans with the resources they need to feel “jazzed” about what they’re doing again.

“I’m jazzed because I get to mentor and coach veterans in their transition,” he said. “And when they’re successful, I feel like I’ve had an impact.”

Kimberly Lanares, 28, is a military wife whose family has been stationed in Nevada for four years and will be here for three more. One of the first questions she asked senior military wives when she married into the Air Force was what career options were available to her.

“They will tell you ‘Well, the sooner you realize it’s gonna be all about him and his career, the better,’” Lanares said. “You may not wear the uniform, but the mission still comes first, no matter what.

“But my kids are growing and I’m more than just a spouse,” Lanares said.

Teaching is a profession she can carry from place to place when her family inevitably has to move again, and Alternative Routes to Licensure appeals because she doesn’t want to go into debt earning a new degree that she can’t use anywhere else.

Rice is helping school district administrators in 12 other U.S. districts to organize teacher recruiting events with a focus on veterans. She hopes she can improve the timing and location of next year’s Las Vegas event to reach even more veterans.

“They’re structured, they’re mission-driven,” Rice said. “All of these things are important in classrooms and in service.”

Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @lauxkimber on Twitter.