Clark County School District leaders spent years complaining that they couldn’t hire enough teachers. Yet they couldn’t be bothered to spend taxpayer recruitment dollars wisely.
The Legislative Counsel Bureau recently released a performance audit of the district’s “Recruitment and Retention Strategies.” Performance audits look at the effectiveness of a program, not just whether every dollar can be accounted for. This review looked at district activities from July 2021 to June 2024.
This is an important topic because the district has spent years struggling to put a licensed teacher in every classroom. In 2023, then-Superintendent Jesus Jara argued more money was needed to solve that problem. “Without optimal education funding levels this session, we will not be able to retain our teachers and support professionals and recruit to fill vacancies,” he said in 2023.
But the district’s “Human Resources Unit did not have a formalized recruitment or retention plan in place during our audit period,” the LCB found.
The unit sure had a lot of money to spend, though. During the three years that auditors covered, the district “spent approximately $14.6 million on recruitment programs, and $393 million on retention programs.” But district leaders couldn’t be bothered to find out if those funds were effectively spent.
The district “did not regularly analyze recruitment or retention data, nor have they developed management information to identify which programs are most effective at recruiting or retaining staff,” the audit noted.
Recruiting staff took full advantage of that lack of oversight. The auditors found 17 district staff members attended a recruiting trip in Miami. Their travels took place over the July 4 holiday. The six-day trip cost more than $32,000, but it didn’t lead to a single teacher hire.
This wasn’t a one-off. Eight recruiting personnel also traveled to Honolulu for an event. That trip cost more than $23,000 and resulted in the hiring of only two employees.
The poor results aren’t surprising, because work often isn’t a high priority during a taxpayer-funded junket.
The audit recommends that the district “develop policies that provide guidance for recruitment-related travel.” That’s putting it too gently. District leaders need to eliminate the taxpayer-funded vacations as the first step in a comprehensive recruitment and retention plan. Go back and see which recruitment efforts were effective. Find out why employees are leaving. Fix the problems — such as school violence and dumbed-down grading standards — that are driving teachers away from the district.
That work won’t be as enjoyable as sunbathing on the beach. But it will be far more effective in recruiting and retaining Clark County School District teachers.
