001So, we are now going to be moving on to item 5.01, our workforce diversity report. Thank you. our team is coming up and um this as usual. I really do enjoy these presentations that we present to the board and community to keep you all apprised of of how we are progressing this school district but also how we are doing our best to the best of our ability adhering to district policy um board policy district administrative policy. And this is just another example of of what you're going to see a fantastic presentation. this team has presented for you all in the community. I'll pass it over to our chief human resource officer, Jessica Kutches, who will then allow for everybody else to announce who they are. Good afternoon, Mr. Silkworth, Dr. Vedell, members of the board.
002I am Jessica Cutes, chief human resources officer. I have the pleasure of presenting today with Mr. Scott Magcguire, director of human capital management, and Miss Chenica McKenzie, senior specialist workforce diversity. We are excited to sit before you to share our annual workforce diversity presentation. As discussions surrounding DEI continue to change, we believe it is important to reiterate our commitment to a workforce that is both qualified and reflective of our student population. These two goals are not mutually exclusive. Talented educators can be found in every community and our school system's goal is to encourage as many of these educators as possible to join our AACPS family. We are not attempting to meet quotas as required in affirmative action programs, but rather to ensure our school leaders have access to the broadest pool of qualified candidates in
003order to select the best educators for their school communities. Our ability to increase the diversity of our workforce is a byproduct of our deliberate outreach and consistent messaging that AACPS is a place where we desire all of our employees to belong, grow, and succeed. In case that was not clear enough, let me be explicit. We have and will continue to hire based on merit consistent with board policy. Today's report is in alignment with our workforce diversity policy and regulation which states that the board of education recognizes the educational benefit of a diverse workforce to enrich the educational experience of students. It aligns with the blueprint for Maryland's future and priority three of our AACPS strategic plan. AACPS is proud of the progress that we have made in developing a workforce that is reflective of our
004student body. 10 years ago, educators of color comprised 17% of newly hired teachers. This number has now increased to more than 30%. Additionally, the overall unit one workforce has increased in diversity from 13% to nearly 20% over the same period. This increase is a testament to our inclusive approach to attracting talent from all backgrounds to join our school system. We've also seen a drastic reduction in vacancies from 175 at the close of the 2223 hiring season down to 59 at the end of the 2425 hiring season. As Anaonda County's demographics continue to change, we are looking at how we can expand our recruitment efforts. Over the past 10 years, our Hispanic Latino student population has nearly doubled from 12% to 22.3%. Currently, our Hispanic Latino teacher population is less than 5%. Data from the National
005Center for Educational Statistics tells us that colleges and universities with the largest populations of Hispanic Latino students majoring in education or similar fields are in the West, Southwest, and Southeast of the United States. Our additional efforts to reach these educators will be discussed shortly. I'm now going to turn it over to Miss McKenzie to talk about some recruitment. Good afternoon. AACPS attended 62 college and university events during the 20242 recruitment season. 24% which are historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions and colleges and universities that serve a diverse population. A complete list of all recruitment trips has been included in the data packet and will be provided to you today. As previously mentioned, we are continuing our bilingual educator recruitment efforts. Last spring, during the 202425 recruitment season, AACPS added colleges in New Mexico
006and Texas to our recruitment efforts. Additional schools in Texas and Florida were added this spring. Since new recruitment partnerships can take time to establish, we will evaluate the success of these new locations over the next two years. We are continuing to host virtual recruitment events in Puerto Rico to target educators interested in relocating while allowing AACPS to utilize our recruitment funding to explore new markets. Our annual job fair was moved to late March to better coincide with when principles have more accurate vacancy information to help with early hiring. AACPS recruiters have been assigned to networks to better support and identify candidates that will best fit various school communities. Open contracts, also known as early offers of employment, remain a tool used to lock in strong candidates earlier in the hiring season. And we continue to
007actively recruit our student interns through on-site visits and hosting special intern events to encourage them to choose AACPS. Finally, in addition to our current salary scale, AACPS has created a new career ladder that incentivizes educators to consider pursuing national board certification and allows conditionally certified educators with prior education experience to obtain more experience credit and earn a higher starting salary. I will now turn it over to Mr. Magcguire to discuss retention strategies. Our newly developed AACPS scorecard shows that in 2024, AACPS retained 94% of instructional staff with retention being over 90% for all demographic groups. This data will serve as a baseline moving forward and it should be noted that this is already an outstanding data point. We are continuing to work to improve our new hire retention which was 84% in 2024. The top
008three reasons for separation from our exit survey for unit one employees with less than one year of experience were personal reasons, principal or supervisor, work hours, demands, and expectations. This year, our workforce monitoring team has developed subcommittees tasked with focusing on challenges that may hinder teacher retention. Our retention subcommittees are dedicated to supporting conditional teachers on their path to professional lensure and to providing enhanced support for educators working in schools that require additional assistance. The AACPS workforce monitoring team will bring their final recommendations to the superintendent's cabinet later this year. During Hispanic Heritage Month, AACPS hosted our first event for Hispanic Latino educators entitled Conexion, where teachersworked and brainstormed ways they can help support AACPS recruitment and retention efforts. Several of these educators are working with human resources to develop additional supports for our bilingual
009staff. We are also continuing to partner with the Anna Rundle Alliance of Black School Educators, better known as ABSY, to host leadership workshops for teachers seeking to advance in their careers. These events are o are open to all AACPS educators. We responded to our new higher retention data by partnering with the division of instruction and school performance to provide targeted professional learning to our school leaders around retention strategies. We believe it is imperative to train our new principles to become confident and successful hiring managers and we provide sessions during first and secondyear principal meetings. We also provide follow-up training for all principles on important topics such as annual guidance on hiring practices, strategies to mitigate bias during interviews, and attracting a diverse workforce. A few examples of AACPS schools that benefit from their continued partnership
010with human resources are North County High School, who has created recruitment materials that highlight the school demographics, academic achievements, and success stories to attract the best teachers for their school community. MacArthur Middle School had 26 classroom vacancies out of a staff of 124 employees in July and to date is fully staffed. Frank Hein Harmon Elementary School was fully staffed for the first time in three years due to the dedication of the administration and attendance at every hiring event. Being fully staffed significantly improves teacher retention by reducing the burden on existing staff for coverage or substitute needs, ensuring that every child has a licensed teacher. And finally, our leads workshop provides additional support to non-tenured educators with 161 attendees at our four quarterly workshops during the 2324 school year. I'll turn it back to Miss McKenzie
011to highlight our recruitment successes. AACPS hired 107 teachers from our 2024 teacher recruitment job fair, which was nearly 60% of attendees. Our 2020 um 2025 job fair was the largest in recent years with over 250 attendees and over 800 screening interviews completed. Over 40 attendees have already accepted positions with AACPS for the 2526 school year. During our 2024 summer job fairs, 22 educators were hired into teaching positions. These smaller job fairs prioritize schools with a higher number of vacancies. 136 open contracts were extended for the 2425 school year with 94 accepting an acceptance rate of 69%. And finally, 125 Anterondo County Public School educators achieved prestigious national board certification for the first time and 41 others maintained their certification, making AACPS's 2024 25 class of NBCT educators, one of the one of the school systems
012largest ever and nearly 8% larger than the 2023 24 class. AACPS now boasts a total of 548 educators who have earned national board certification status, making AACPS one of the top three counties for MBCTS in the state of Maryland. And we are thrilled to report that for a third year in a row, new hire teacher diversity has been over 30%. Ending the 2025 202425 hiring season at 33%. Thank you. And we are happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.