DISTRICTS LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD TEACHERS STATE, FEDERAL GUIDELINES MAGNIFY SHORTAGE.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Impending state budget cuts have Antelope Valley school officials wondering how they will meet federal education laws that require all teachers to have full credentials by the 2005-06 school year.

The possibility of needing to ax millions of dollars from the district's budget has left trustees to wonder whether they can fund the improvements required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

``Where's the money to do the job?'' asked Antelope Valley Union High School District trustee Al Beattie.

The act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in January, has been touted as an ambitious education-reform plan that state education officials say will require significant effort to put into effect.

The act requires that all newly hired teachers must be ``highly qualified,'' and teachers hired before the start of the 2002-03 school year will have four years to become highly qualified. In addition, instructional aides hired before the start of the 2002-03 school year must complete two years of higher education, obtain an associate's degree or pass a rigorous test assessing their abilities within the next four years.

Schools that receive federal aid called Title 1 money, as do most schools in the Antelope Valley, have three years to make sure all their teachers have full credentials.

As of the 2000-01 school year, the state Department of Education says, 73.3 percent of Palmdale School District teachers were fully credentialed, as were 80 percent in the Westside Union School District and 84 percent in the Lancaster School District.

``The problem is not keeping credentialed teachers. It's finding credentialed teachers in specialty areas,'' said Westside Union School District Superintendent John Costello.

Because the pool of qualified science, math, special education, speech and language teachers is small, the Westside district may be forced to train teachers in those areas to meet requirements, Costello said.

The challenge for school districts to find credentialed teachers is due to the fact that ``there's not enough teachers being trained to meet demand,'' Costello said, adding ``that's why we have emergency permits.''

Further compounding the problem is that California does not allow teachers to use credentials earned in other states, Costello said. Therefore, those teachers must apply for emergency credentials.

Concerned about having a big enough pool of qualified teachers, school officials have talked with Palmdale city officials about offering incentives such as down payments for homes to bring teachers to the area, Beattie said. City and school officials are still in discussions regarding incentives.

The Lancaster School District is creating a five-minute recruitment video that will showcase the Antelope Valley and provide information about the district. The video, due to be completed in February, will be sent to prospective teachers and will be featured at job fairs.

Recruiting qualified teachers is difficult for most of California, with the exception of coastal regions, said Donita Winn, a longtime Lancaster volunteer who is now a high school district trustee. She is producing the video with Jerri Munney, an administrative secretary.

``Most people don't know what we have here,'' Winn said. ``There is a lot here.''