DISTRICT RAISES SIGNING BONUSES; INCENTIVES AIM TO LURE TEACHERS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - New credentialed teachers hired to teach math, special education or science will be getting something extra from the Antelope Valley Union High School District - a $3,000 cash incentive.

For the second year in a row, the district is offering the incentives to lure new teachers to the district, which has a shortage of fully credentialed instructors.

``We desperately need them. We need to get them up here,'' trustee Brett Nelson said. ``Other states are doing things like that, and we need to be competitive.''

The board voted unanimously at Wednesday's meeting to approve the cash incentives.

The district for this academic year hired 17 special education and math teachers and gave them incentives of $2,000 each. The district increased the incentive to $3,000 to be more competitive against other school districts, some of whom are offering to help pay for teachers' additional education and housing.

The incentives are contingent upon new hires working a full year with the district, which intends to spend no more than $50,000 on the program.

Incentives to teachers are a growing trend and are indicative of the shortage of teachers in the state, according to the California Teachers Association. Some school districts in the Bay Area offer money to help with down payments on houses or provide subsidies for apartments because the cost of living is so high there, CTA officials said.

Beginning teachers make $28,042 a year in the high school district, where lack of teachers is a critical problem. District officials said the board at a meeting last month granted a 90-day waiver to a new teacher who did not have a bachelor's degree. That person must obtain the degree within three months.

The district would need 150 new credentialed teachers if teacher overtime - teachers teaching more than the typical five periods - was eliminated, trustees said.