In Las Vegas, where the student body doubled between 1990 and 2000, more than 100 new schools have opened. Assistant Superintendent George Ann Rice predicts that the country's fastest-growing district will need to hire more than 1,500 new teachers for the next school year alone. The city recruits from over 40 states and even advertises in its heavily traveled airport. California, North Carolina, and Florida are watching their rolls swell in similar fashion. As states such as South Carolina and Maryland hire retirees at full salary and pension while cities such as Chicago look to foreign countries for faculty, job-hunting teachers should expect to be wooed with passion.
Many districts now offer signing bonuses of several thousand dollars, for example.
Districts short of cash offer less tangible perks instead. Kendra Krumpe was lured to the St. Joseph Learning Center in Dayton, Ohio, because the principal and the district's director of special education spent an entire day introducing her to the school and its students and faculty, helping her figure out if she liked the fit. Some new teachers are taking advantage of the drought by naming their terms of employment. A guide for that long, strange trip into the real world. Subscribe now for articles, tools, and expert advice.