Schools in Las Vegas and surrounding areas will be in Hawai'i next week to persuade local teachers to come to Nevada to fill some of the thousands of openings it has for the coming year.

The Clark County School District is advertising its jobs here and will begin interviews next weekend as it makes an annual trip to Hawai'i. It is offering new hires a $2,000 signing bonus and beginning salaries that start at $30,200 and $39,700 a year depending on academic degree and expertise.

Its help-wanted ads also tout good benefits and career opportunities.

"Our student population grows about 10,000 to 12,000 a year," said Pat Nelson, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas-based school system.

"You can just imagine the numbers that are needed to keep up with the growth."

Teachers are needed as 10 new schools are slated to open this year in the district, which employs 18,000 teachers and also needs to fill vacancies that occur because of attrition. Clark County is one of the country's fastest-growing counties, growing 20 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It has a population of more than 1.9 million residents, of which 302,763 attend its school system.

This year it needs to hire more than 3,000 teachers. In the past it has taken recruiting trips as far away as Spain and the Philippines, Nelson said. Hawai'i is one of 45 states its recruiters will visit in 2007.

"The university here (in Las Vegas) doesn't have enough teachers in its class," Nelson said. "You have a great teacher program at the University of Hawai'i. That's another reason why we come."

The district has been coming here to recruit since 1996 and has found Hawai'i a fertile recruiting area in part because of the Aloha State's ties with Las Vegas. Nelson said Clark County has averaged about nine Hawai'i hires each year, though last year it jumped to 13.

This year it is sending a former Hawai'i resident, Ryan Yanagi, to recruit here. Because of Yanagi's familiarity with Hawai'i, the district hopes to hire more than 13 teachers here and has taken out advertisements in newspapers on all islands. It's also scheduled recruiting trips to UH and Brigham Young University Hawaii, Nelson said.

For teachers focused on pay rates, the move to Clark County might not be for them. An American Federation of Teachers study found starting pay for teachers here averages $35,816, or the eight highest in the nation. The average pay for all teachers here was $47,833.

The average pay for the entire state of Nevada was $43,212, according to the same study.

Clark County isn't looking for social studies or physical education teachers at this time. It also requires people have a valid Nevada certification for the level or subject taught.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.