New teachers give a show of hands in response to a question about teaching experience during a Clark County School District orientation session for new teachers at the Venetian Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. Over 1,700 teachers took part in the orientation.
Thursday, May 28, 2015 | 7:05 p.m.
A new ad blitz seems to be working in the Clark County School District's mission to fill thousands of teaching positions in time for next school year.
CCSD's human resources department reported tonight that it had signed 626 new teachers since the January kickoff of its marketing campaign, "Teach Vegas."
That's not including teachers the district expects to hire through Teach for America, alternative licensure programs and out-of-state recruitment. So far, those initiatives have produced around 350 potential teachers who could be hired over the summer, and the number is only expected to rise.
That's a significant chunk out of the 2,600 positions the district estimates it will need to fill going into the 2015-16 school year due to retirements and resignations. During the hiring rush this time last year, the district was able to fill all but 600 teaching positions, causing a shortage that has continued unabated into 2015.
The marketing campaign featured highly visible advertisements, including radio spots, space in the Southwest Airlines inflight magazine, two billboards along Interstate 15 and banner ads in McCarran International Airport and Times Square in New York City.
As of today, the district has hired 212 more teachers compared with the same time last year.
Meg Nigro, CCSD's director of recruitment and development, said that district recruiters are gearing up for a busy summer.
"The next month is really critical," Nigro said. "It's our crazy season."
She said recruitment has been a little harder than last year due to the ongoing teacher shortage in the rest of the country, where fewer students are expressing a desire to pursue a teaching career.
In CCSD, the teacher shortage is particularly dire. A majority of the empty positions are in the valley's most at-risk schools. Classrooms that lack a full-time teacher are typically filled with long-term substitutes, many of whom are new to teaching and lack experience.
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