Vacancies continue to leave thousands of Clark County students without licensed teachers

More than halfway through the academic year, the Clark County School District’s teacher shortage remains stubbornly high and continues to have an outsized impact on disadvantaged and special education students.

The nation’s fifth-largest district Wednesday reported that about 700 classroom vacancies, or 200 fewer than when school started in August, continue to leave thousands of students without a fully licensed teacher.

More than three-quarters of those vacancies exist at schools with the highest share of children from low-income households. Nearly a third of all open positions are for special education teachers.

District officials stress that they have hired 430 new teachers since August, and about 120 countywide instructional coaches returned to the classroom over winter break.

Nevertheless, a surge in student enrollment, especially in the elementary grades, has forced recruiters to court even more candidates as they prepare for the 2016-17 hiring season.

“We added five elementary positions just yesterday,” said Andre Long, co-interim chief human resources officer for the district.

Gentry and Long presented the sobering statistics about the current and future need for teachers to the Clark County School Board during its monthly work session Wednesday at the Greer Education Building.

Among the more concerning bullet points: The rate of licensed teachers who leave the district has grown from 7.1 percent in 2010-11 to 9.1 percent last year.

Long, however, expected that rate to shrink, helped by provisions in a freshly negotiated teachers contract that included pay raises.

“We anticipate that (leaver rate) to go back down closer to the 7 and 8 percent due to the fact that the new salary schedule will be enhanced, and we think people will be more likely to come to Clark County,” Long said.

He said more than 1,000 new teachers started working here after the state released money in July for a new incentive program to attract educators to poorly performing campuses or schools with a high share of low-income students.

“When that money came along last year, most of the hiring was done and people were placed in buildings already,” Gentry said.

“So that’s significant that — even at that later date — over 1,000 people took advantage of that hiring incentive,” he added. “We anticipate that will be significantly higher for this next current school year.”

The human resources division also appears to have refined its recruitment strategy as it tries to fill 2,900 teaching positions before school resumes this fall.

Last year, recruiters cast a wide net across the country, employing a “Calling All Heroes” campaign that included a zip-lining superintendent, superhero capes and a prominent billboard in Times Square.

"Approximately 140,000 (teachers) move every single year, so we know there’s enough people out there to achieve success. We just need to figure out how to find them,” said Mike Gentry, who serves alongside Long as co-interim chief human resources officer.

He told the school board Wednesday that recruiters, instead of trying to attract any and all teachers, now will target two key populations: Educators with one to three years or more than 29 years of experience and who live in high cost-of-living areas.

He explained that the new teacher salary schedule, median home prices in Las Vegas, lack of a state income tax and ability to collect retirement after working five years should compel those teachers in those categories to flock to Clark County.

“We believe we have a powerful story to tell,” Gentry said.

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton