LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Clark County School District is short about 1,400 teachers and it's now focusing some of its recruiting firepower on Nevada's neighbors to the west.
District leaders on Tuesday announced a marketing campaign — geared mostly to social media channels and radio — focused on Southern California as CCSD aims to make a dent into its teacher vacancies.
The advertisements are set to run beginning on Wednesday.
Yvonne Kai Anderson is a substitute teacher who has been working in the district for a few weeks. She's transitioning back to the workforce after taking some time off for parenting and she says she likes the flexibility subbing offers.
"I thought that subbing in this district would be a great start," Kai Anderson says. "When I became a mom, it was really hard for me to work, but now I'm coming back."
Kai Anderson, who subs mostly on the valley's west side, often in Spring Valley or Summerlin, says she sees the need for substitute teachers within the district.
While her experiences have been on the positive side, she has noticed recent high-profile incidents, where teachers were involved, at CCSD schools. One of those was when a student and a substitute teacher recently got into a physical altercation at Valley High School.
That incident made the national news cycle. Watch below:
"Sometimes, you know, being a sub might be daunting," she says. "You can be teaching kids who are bigger and maybe taller than you."
While CCSD is short on substitutes, it also has shortages for many other teaching positions, including those in special education, technical education and math and English.
In an effort to find people to fill some of those gaps, CCSD officials announced on Tuesday a campaigned aimed for markets in Southern California. The district hopes to draw teaching candidates from a region that is home to close to 24 million people.
The campaign will feature video ads, along with radio spots and social media hits.
At a recent board of trustees meeting, CCSD officials declared a number of positions within the district "critical labor shortage areas." One thing that does, officials say, is allow retired teachers to more quickly enter back into the labor pool in Clark County.
