Last week on November 30th, there was a Board Information Session about “HR Processes” in the district. The meeting was live-streamed, but the recording of this meeting has not been posted. I will request that it be posted along with the other board meeting videos.
UPDATE (December 20, 2021): The recording of this meeting has been posted. You can watch it here.
Here are my thoughts about this meeting:
Hiring
For quite some time, there have been concerns about the HR process in this district. Primarily, the concerns brought to my attention revolve around the timeliness of hiring new teachers. During his presentation, the head of HR made two main points: (1) Richland One’s hiring process is as speedy or speedier than other districts and (2) to the extent there are delays, they are caused by people or issues outside the control of the HR department (i.e. principals not doing what they are supposed to do, having to rely on an outside vendor for some background checks, or the candidate not returning information promptly).
There was some discussion regarding staffing issues in the department—only two people in the HR Department of 25 employees are responsible for processing new hires (one for certified positions and one for classified positions). There was the suggestion that the department may need to hire additional staff to handle this task. I was unable to get a clear answer about whether there was a delay in processing candidate applications because of a staff shortage within the department.
I did ask if the district tracked data that would quantify the process.For example, do we know how long it takes to post the job after it becomes vacant? Then, how long does it take to conduct the interview and then make the hiring decision? To me, these are important milestones and having data about the timing between each one would help us figure out whether there are issues, where they are, and how we can address them. Apparently, we do not track this information, and I think we need to.
Simply put, it is difficult to actually have a discussion without the underlying data. Teachers and administrators have a very different take on the HR process than that which was presented at the meeting. Data like that referenced above would go a long way in figuring out what the reality is.
Recruitment and Retention (Video at the 1:42:00 mark)
My biggest concern right now is losing even more teachers and other school personnel than we have already lost. Based on my meetings with teachers and principals, we could see a real exodus of teachers this year. Of course, this trend is not limited to our district. But we currently have 83 teaching vacancies, so we certainly cannot afford to lose even more teachers. And despite the very real challenge this presents, we have to do everything we can to keep the teachers we have while also finding new teachers.
I am concerned that we do not have a very specific, aggressive plan to retain and recruit. I will be honest when I say that I was pretty taken aback when the head of HR suggested that teachers feel like they have the support they need right now. (See this at the 1:54:00 minute mark in video above). That is just not what I am seeing or hearing. Teachers are more overwhelmed now than at any other point during the pandemic. Kids who were not in school for long periods of time require more support—academic and social/emotional—than we are giving them. Teachers feel like they are being set up to fail no matter how hard they work. If we ignore this reality, I worry we will miss some real opportunities to mitigate the worst case scenario.
Richland One is trying to provide financial incentives for teachers and other school staff. I think that is important, but I think we have to do more.
Let’s meet with teachers and ask them what they need. Teachers who feel supported, stay. Teachers who don’t, leave. Of course, support can take different forms (e.g., social worker, teaching aide, mental health counselor, behavior interventionist, etc.), so let’s figure out what types of support teachers at a particular school need and then determine whether we can provide it. For example, the district’s original plan for the third round of federal stimulus money included hiring 27 new social workers. This would be a huge improvement for schools. However, the reality is that hiring this many school social workers will take years, and we just don’t have that sort of time. We may need to re-think how we are using that money and direct it towards solutions that we can implement more quickly.
Let me say this, this is hard stuff. Retaining and recruiting teachers has been hard for years, and it is even harder now. But we don’t have a choice. We have to redouble our efforts do a better job of engaging with teachers and other staff to figure out what they need.