CCSD facing shortage of 1,300 licensed positions

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story didn’t attribute the teacher shortage figure to the Clark County Education Association. According to Clark County School District, there’s a shortage of about 1,300 open licensed positions including teachers, school counselors and school nurses ahead of the school year.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - With the 2023-2024 school year approaching, the Clark County School District is still in need of 2,000 teachers, according to the Clark County Education Association.

Dan Price, a career tech teacher at Sunrise Mountain High School, is one of many teachers that feel they’re not being compensated for the work they do.

“I ask myself that every day, why am I going in and doing this, between the lack of support from the school district, the extra work they’re piling up, these professional developments that have nothing to do with my subject matter?” Price said. “Why not retire at this point?”

“Because of our vacancies right now, we potentially are going into the school year with 35,000 students that will not have a licensed teacher in the classroom,” said Elizabeth Adler, an executive board member of CCEA. Adler, who is also a teacher, says the lack of licensed educators causes substitutes to take over classrooms, among other changes.

“Classes sometimes need to be split, shared among teachers that already have a full class of students,” she said, adding that keeping teachers and hiring teachers has been hard because of pay and resources.

“Salaries have not kept up with inflation,” Adler explained. “We have a need for good healthcare and our insurance benefits do not adequately cover teachers.”

Adler, who has been a teacher for 26 years, says she hasn’t seen local schools this short-staffed during her time. She says one year, 61 of 100 teachers resigned at Sunrise Mountain High School.

Overall, she’s seen approximately 20 people quit every year and she said that onboarding new teachers has been challenging for many reasons

“It’s going to be very difficult to recruit somebody when there’s no contract in place, no hiring bonuses, no incentives for those educators to come and take jobs,” Adler stated.

CCSD has not responded to a request for a comment on this matter.

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