Veterans get recruited again — for teaching

Career fair focus plays up service

Hoping to fill some of its nearly 500 teaching vacancies, the Clark County School District reached out to local veterans Saturday morning, focusing on two key traits that make veterans a great fit for classrooms.

The first is that former military members have an affinity for structure and discipline. The second and more important quality for teaching, school district volunteer George Ann Rice said, is that veterans are committed to serving their communities.

“Besides the vacancies, these are people who have already made the commitment to serve,” said Rice, the Clark County School District’s former superintendent for human resources. “It’s a chance for them to serve again.”

Rice was master of ceremonies at Saturday’s veterans and spouses career fair at Eldorado High School, 1139 N. Linn Lane.

Dan Baiza, 49, spent three years in the Army and five years in the National Guard before retiring and becoming a teacher in California. He taught elementary school for 13 years there and has lived in Nevada for eight years, selling insurance and working as a legal secretary.

Now, Baiza wants to get his teaching license in Clark County so he can teach high school science and be closer to his daughter, who started ninth grade this year.

At Saturday’s event, Ross Bryant, the director of the Military and Veteran Services Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, walked prospective teachers through their financial options and connected them with the university’s resources.

Bryant said teaching is a good fit for transitioning veterans because they’re giving back to the community, something that’s familiar to them.

Kimberly Lanares, 28, is a military wife whose family has been stationed in Nevada for four years and will be here for three more.

Teaching is a profession she can carry from place to place when her family inevitably has to move again, and Alternative Routes to Licensure appeals because she doesn’t want to go into debt earning a new degree that she can’t use anywhere else.

Rice is helping school district administrators in 12 other U.S. districts to organize teacher recruiting events with a focus on veterans.

“They’re structured, they’re mission-driven,” Rice said. “All of these things are important in classrooms and in service.”