LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- The Clark County School District's recent arbitration victory over the teachers' union saved the district $23 million dollars. We now know where some of that money will go: towards hiring more teachers.
CCSD student to teacher ratios are among the highest in the nation. But those numbers should soon improve. The school district plans to hire 1700 to 2000 new teachers by next fall.
The mechanics are already in place to streamline the hiring process, which is going online.
The new hires won't eliminate the challenges faced by local public schools. The district says many of the schools most positively impacted will be those Currently designated as "at risk"
“This is going to go across the board and directly into those schools so we can see our highest class sizes come down,” said Amanda Fulkerson, the Chief Communications Officer for CCSD. ”Now, this is not a silver bullet. We still are going to have some of the highest class sizes in the nation, and that's where we are going to have to continue working hard on making sure that everyone understands there is a need for an equitable funding formula for public education in Nevada. But this is a step in the right direction.”
The district says the current average salary for CCSD teachers, including benefits, is $75,000 a year. CCSD is expecting over 8000 applications for the up to 2000 new teaching vacancies.
