School district known for aggressive teacher recruiting

Sunday, July 11, 1999 | 9:21 a.m.

The Clark County School District is considered one of the most aggressive teacher recruiters in the nation.

"If not the most aggressive, definitely one of the top two or three," Segun Eubanks of the National Education Association said.

Eubanks said other pro-active recruiters tend to be the nation's largest districts such as New York and Los Angeles.

Here is part of Clark County's strategy to lure teachers from across the country:

Recruiting visits: Interviewers, mostly principals, travel to 42 states each spring. The district targets top teacher colleges, states where teaching jobs are scarce and cold-weather states.

Internet -- The district website, www.ccsd.net, contains a host of information for teachers, including salaries, licensing requirements and application information. About 30 percent of applications now are taken on-line. "Other districts are blown away by what we are doing," said Greg Halopoff, director of electronic recruitment. "We're on the cutting edge."

Video phones -- New this year to the recruitment effort, video phones are about the same size as a regular telephone but come with a small two-way video screen. The district mails the lightweight phones to prospective candidates, who hook them up for "face-to-face" interviews with officials in Las Vegas.

Teleconferences -- Officials hold live conferences with college audiences who see them projected on big screens at campus venues. The conferences are designed to introduce students to Las Vegas and encourage them to relocate here.

Teacher programs -- The district runs several programs designed to pull people into teaching. About 40 people are in the Urban Teacher Program, which is aimed at professionals with college degrees who want a new career teaching in at-risk schools. A bilingual education program with about 100 participants is pulling bilingual people into a program designed to get them teaching credentials and into Spanish-speaking classrooms. About 35 people are in a special education program that targets support staffers -- custodians, secretaries and other aides -- who want to teach special needs children.

Media/advertising -- The district places ads in city and campus newspapers to publicize visits. At least three newspapers -- the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City and the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union -- have published stories about the district's aggressive recruitment in their states.