The Carson City School District was looking to fill some positions as the new school year began, according to Jose Delfin, associate superintendent of human resources.
As of Aug. 10, the district had approximately 480 teachers, 346 educational support personnel and 47 administrators, or a total of 873. This number will increase as the district fills vacancies, Delfin told the district’s Board of Trustees.
At the time, there were still 18 teachers to hire, including seven classroom teachers, six special education teachers and five teacher on special assignment interventionist positions offered through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to address learning loss.
Delfin said the district maintained a contingency plan to bring on student teachers to serve for the 13 classroom and SPED teacher openings. Principals have been asked to fill positions with licensed teachers first before bringing on any TOSAs as much as possible. Delfin also said the situation was not unusual to have student teachers placed at every site as the teacher of record.
For classified vacancies, 18 educational support personnel openings were available as of Aug. 10 as well, with approximately 9 SPED paraprofessionals, three bus drivers, two regular education paraprofessionals, one custodian, one safety officer, one library media technician and one bus attendant needed. The district brought on several custodians at the beginning of hiring season, Delfin reported.
He was asked by the board about the safety officer position, which was thought to be similar to a school resource officer. The description for the job has been overhauled and is responsible for some of the district’s information technology security needs, helping to operate school cameras on buses and campuses, key cards and entrances, working under risk manager Ann Cyr, he said.
Other vacancies, Delfin said, included a dean’s position at Eagle Valley Middle School and a registered nurse for the district.
Staff attrition, including 33 teacher resignations and 17 retirements and 26 ESP resignations and 17 retirements since Jan. 1 and three administrator resignations with one deceased ESP member, totals 92 staff members. Members have left due to finding employment elsewhere in other school districts, retirement, personal reasons, relocating out of state, staying home with their children as new mothers, death, returning to college or for miscellaneous reasons.
Delfin said the district continues to recruit through various means.
Board President Joe Cacioppo asked about the district’s ranking in its salary matrix. The district previously increased starting pay for first-year teachers, but Cacioppo said other districts likely have made adjustments to help with their own hiring.
Delfin replied Carson City remains “in the pack” depending on its budget although starting figures are shrinking.
“We obviously can do better, we can offer more,” he said. “It would be nice to be at $50K as a starting point, but I know that’s a dream, but that would certainly entice a lot of new teachers. Money does talk. Incentives come and go, but actual starting salaries make a lot of noise. Here in Northern Nevada, it’s getting not cheaper. It’s getting a lot more expensive, as you know.”
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