Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Maria Silva in for Amber Renee Dixon, who is on maternity leave.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll get to the overall picture of workforce development in just a minute.

But first, teacher recruitment and retention is a nationwide problem.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported in December that listen to this, 45% of public schools are operating without a full teaching staff.

So how is Southern Nevada doing?

Joining us to talk about efforts to staff and retain teachers is Carol Talks chief human resources officer for the Clark County School District.

Carol, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me.

Before we get to the teacher situation here in southern Nevada, I do need to talk.

You've only been with the department for about ten months, but you bring a wealth of knowledge and information and you have a very impressive resume.

You were everything from a substitute teacher to an assistant principal to a principal.

And then again now in charge of H.R..

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

And let's talk about why that's so important to be able to bring that knowledge with you here to Clark County.

And you've only been with the 60 for about ten months, right?

Yes.

Well, I do think my background brings a unique perspective to the job, especially in H.R., because if you don't understand how to lead, which I think is really an important component that I learned when I was a principal and in assistant principal, that component, bringing that to an H.R.

division, it helps me to wrap the people around a vision and goals and push them forward rather than just digging into the minutia.

It is my goal to inspire and then set the strategic alliance with the strategic goals of the district.

And you have already made some changes.

We'll get to those.

But let's talk a little bit about where we are.

Where is the Clark County School District when it comes to teacher shortage?

Okay.

Well, we have two different numbers that we're looking at right now.

Actually, we started off the year with a little over 1300 vacancies, and I had just started in June.

So that was a big number for me.

I have worked in several different states and in several different school districts, but this is the largest one I'd started with.

So you can imagine the challenge I put before myself.

But since then, we have hired over 2200 teachers since the beginning of school this year.

And when I compare that to schools years in the past, that's 200 more than we did for the entire season last year.

And then 400 more than we did the season before.

So we're not even through our full season and we're that far, much further ahead.

But I am facing right now because we just posted for our new budget next year.

Right now I've got 1300 facing vacancies vacancy me right now, but we're doing a lot of different techniques that because I wasn't here then that weren't implemented this quickly last year.

And when I talk about some of the things that you are implementing your recruitment efforts, really ramping those up not just locally, nationally, but also internationally.

Let's talk about some of the things that you're doing differently to try to recruit more teachers to 60.

Thank you.

Yes.

An exciting program that we started this year was called the Ambassador Program.

And what we did was we let principles apply to be representatives of our school district and go out on recruitment trips and tell us where did they go to school?

Were they part of any Greek club societies so that they would have automatic connections with schools?

And that helped us strategize where we were going to go.

And we also developed a actual contract that we can offer.

It's a contingent contract and it gives the candidate ten days, but we bring the principals with us because they can do the actual interviews rather than my recruiters who are not educators.

We got the educators involved so that they can offer the contracts on site.

And then that will help me to monitor next year where did we get our biggest bang for our buck?

Because how did when did the did?

How many of those teachers matriculated into an actual employee come August?

So we'll be monitoring that and.

We'll look at other thing that you also implemented was, again, nowadays with technology that we have in our phones, people aren't giving out those business cards anymore, but something that you are bringing back.

Oh, absolutely.

And you would be surprised at the response we had.

We made it very voluntary.

I've had over 3700 people request them, so we have over 222,000 ID cards facilitating throughout the valley and throughout the nation right now.

And let's talk a little bit also about the different programs that you have.

You have the paraprofessionals pathway Project with Dunleavy.

That's one of several programs that are out there.

Yes, absolutely.

If you're a paraprofessional and you have between 40 and 60 or your AA degree, we will pay for your entire degree to get to that VA, even if you're missing a few of your core classes.

Before you get that, A will actually pay for those two.

And we're using Esser funds to support that.

And then substitute teachers.

And you were not only a paraprofessional but also a substitute teacher.

And let's talk about that because that is something else that you're always also looking into to try and get more substitute teachers.

That's so important.

Yes, absolutely.

And we've done a tremendous job.

I have to give kudos to my director who's over that.

She, Barbara Collins, has done a fantastic job.

We've hired over 1200 substitutes this year alone as well.

So we're continuing.

The more we have, the better we have.

But also we're giving them pathways to get to that alternative certification program.

And they were delighted.

They were actually one of the biggest groups that was so delighted to get a business card because, you know, they'd never had one before.

And so we have they are probably have over 350 of our subs have those.

So if you multiply that by 60, that's how many they're distributing.

So it's been really exciting to see.

And let's talk about the other partnerships that we have.

I mentioned you and Elvie, but you also have partnerships with CSA and Nevada State University now.

Yes.

And you know, now they have dual credit programs.

And I know retaining teachers, we talk about keeping the best and brightest here and trying to keep them here in our school district.

Talk about this partnerships that you have with these organizations and universities.

Yeah, we just started a great program with Nevada State College where offering we gave them $3 million of our Esser funds for them to pay for students who are going into the education field so that they will then have a pathway into Clark County.

So from what I understand, when they first heard that, there were tears.

So from what I understand, Dr. Joe and I are actually going to get the opportunity to go out and meet with them, which is a wonderful thing.

And when you talk.

About these Esser funds, because they are very important right now, now more than ever.

Very important.

One of the things that I found that was very successful and this was implemented in our Esser plan last year before I got here, was the $4,000 that we gave to people who were coming from the outside, and we gave them $4,000 for relocation expenses.

I did an analysis of that, and that was almost a third of the people that we hired last year, between 25 and 30% of those, 85% said that it was a major marker for their decision to come to 60.

So that is something we are looking to negotiate as we move forward.

And real quick, we have about a minute.

Let's talk a little bit not just teachers, substitute teachers.

They're also in charge of support staff as well.

Yes.

I am in charge of support staff and I'm in charge of administrative staff.

So I have the whole the whole gamut.

One of the things that I think is very important, I took on the role of teachers this year to make sure that our salary schedule was more equitable because we brought up the base to 5115 this year, which compressed our salary.

So it was really important for me to look at all the teachers and their salaries and how we're paying them.

It's also really important for me to look at how we pay our support staff because we're competing with the Strip and our administrators because we need to keep that talent within.

So I'm having a third party actually come in and look at our support staff and our administrative staff and see where they lie with their job descriptions and how their compensation over lies and how we compete on a national level and a local level.

Carol, thank you so much for what you're doing and thank you so much for joining us.

And where can we get more information?

Because on your website, you have so many great resources for anyone who's interested in becoming a teacher.

You can always go to the Kirstie website and look under human resources and you can find a plethora of information.