VALLEY BUSINESS / HIGHER HOPES: TRENDS IN THE JOB MARKET : Schools Face Deficit of Teachers, Surplus of Students : Vocation: Surging enrollments and class-size reduction have created increased demand--and leverage--for qualified instructors.

Job prospects for teachers are red hot in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, thanks to a continuing teacher shortage, school officials said.

Elementary and high schools, particularly those with fast-growing enrollments in the northeast San Fernando Valley, are scrambling to hire qualified teachers for the new school year--now just days away. And even some year-round institutions, which normally would have had teaching staffs in place months ago, are still filling slots.

Particularly troublesome is a scarcity of instructors qualified to teach math, science and special education--which are also subjects in short supply of teachers nationwide.

The current shortage stems in part from California’s move, beginning in 1995, to reduce class size to 20 students for kindergarten through third grade, said Mike Acosta, an administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Three years ago, it became a teachers’ market,” Acosta said. “[The teachers] could go where they wanted. Credentialed teachers are needed everywhere.”

And there’s more class-size reduction in the works this fall. LAUSD is cutting ninth grade English classes to 20 students, and also reducing the numbers of students in math classes by 16%. In addition, eighth grade English classes are also shrinking to the 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio.

Acosta said the district has 1,300 positions to fill--an improvement over the hiring situation last fall.

“Last year at this time we had to hire 1,800 teachers,” he said.

Acosta believes the district is having greater success retaining teachers because of a number of mentoring programs that assist and train new teachers.

Still, about 6,900 of the approximately 35,000 teachers in the district are working with emergency credentials, about the same number as last year. That gives critics fits.

“They’re still bringing in people who aren’t fully qualified,” said Steve Blazak, spokesman for United Teachers of Los Angeles, who believes the average starting salary for teachers--now $32,500--needs to be higher, in part to attract more people into the profession.

For now, Arturo del Rio, principal of San Fernando Middle School, may have to use substitutes for permanent positions when school starts next week.

Del Rio has four openings--three in science and one for a bilingual English and social studies instructor.

“I’m beginning to perspire,” he said. “I hate to start the year with substitutes because the first day sets the tone of the year for that particular class.”

Lawrence D. Gonzales, principal of Pacoima Elementary, is scrambling to fill two openings, although several classes at the year-round institution have begun.

“I’ve already had parental complaints, but I’ve got to find the right teacher,” he said. Gonzales prefers to wait for a qualified, fully prepared candidate, rather than hire anyone that is available.

“I’m trying to be as selective as I can in a seller’s market,” said Gonzalez. “This is crunch time, really heavy, bare knuckle crunch time.”

Nick Vasquez, principal of the 1,200-student Morningside Elementary School in San Fernando, another year-round school, has filled his nine openings this year, but everything didn’t fall into place on time.

“We had a couple of classes where we had substitutes for a couple of weeks and the parents were very concerned,” he said.

Alec Levenson, an economist with the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank, said one factor in the teacher shortage is wider employment opportunities for women, who traditionally filled the majority of teaching jobs.

“Teaching is not the most glamorous profession,” noted Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

“If you were looking at a teaching career at L.A. Unified, you might think once, twice, three times because of the rather troubled image the district has,” he said.

To many prospective teachers, smaller school districts--particularly in areas with low crime rates, high-achieving students and strong community support--are more appealing, Kyser said.

Those areas face teacher shortages, too, but many report fewer problems in attracting qualified candidates. They also work hard at recruitment.

“All of our classes are filled,” said Beverly Knutson, director of personnel for the 6,100-student Newhall School District, which has seven elementary schools. “We’ve just hired the last four teachers for new positions for this year.”

Newhall School District officials were on the prowl for teachers as early as February at recruiting fairs in California and other states. School officials even went to job fairs in Canada, where teaching opportunities are scarce.

And, prospective teachers seek out Newhall School District. “Santa Clarita is a great place to work,” Knutson said. “We have an active parent population and they support the schools.”

“We turned the corner this year,” said Ron Saltinski, assistant superintendent of personnel for Saugus Union School District, which employs 425 teachers. Three years ago, when first implementing class size reduction, Saltinski said he was so desperate for teachers he was practically taking “people off Highway 5.” About half of the hires at that time had emergency credentials. Today, it’s a different story: Saugus Union hired 60 teachers with fewer than 10% holding emergency credentials, he said.

Saugus turned to new technology in its search for personnel. It recruited one-third of its new teachers on its Web site, which helped widen the search and attract technologically savvy young people.

“[Job candidates] are now checking out school districts on the Internet rather than traveling and going to job fairs,” Saltinski said. “They can check out the nature of the community and the quality of the district online.”

Mike von Buelow, assistant superintendent of the 16,000-student William S. Hart Union High School District--which added about 1,000 students over the past year--hired 106 teachers for its 11 junior high and high schools in the Santa Clarita area, all but a handful of which are fully credentialed.

“In the area of education, we find the most attractive incentives are things that relate to the teaching environment,” von Buelow said. Especially important to young teachers with families is quality of life in the area, he said. “They want a good place to raise their families.”