001recording. >> All right. Um, welcome to the HR committee work session agenda item no date May 5th, 2026. >> Well done. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, first of public comment mean we don't have any anyone visiting with us would like to share some comment. Nope. So we will not have any committee responses. Um, we did not get a chance for the proof of minutes from the March 3rd meeting. We're still hoping we can do that today. >> Okay. >> Um, and do you approve? >> I approve them last time. So, I approve them again today. >> Thank you so much. >> Um, what about the April 7th? >> I am not ready to do those. >> I didn't do those. >> Great. Okay. >> Approved. >> So, we have two for each at least. >>
002Great. Um, all right. We have a very short public meeting today. We're going to spend most of our time in executive session with our HR team. But before we do that, um our very own Ladira went to a um conference a month or so ago um and briefly shared some updates with me that were very exciting. So um she has joined us today to share more broadly about some of the takeaways that you had. So love to hear. >> Yes, thank you. I put together a few slides and I know we don't have a lot of time so I'll um I'll go through it but April 9th and 10th I attended the national educator shortage summit um held in Alexandria Virginia um it is an educator summit um hosted by the American Association of School
003Personnel Administrators. Uh this was the fifth summit. Um their first summit happened in 2022 and um it was in response to uh the shortages. Um so uh you know keynote speakers started out with um the state of you know state of of of our um um the shortages right now. Um there are 411,549 positions approximately um that are unfilled or uncertified. Um and um really, you know, it's it's not a localized issue. We're dealing with it nationally. Um and so the educator shortage summit um served to bring all uh prek through 12 stakeholders um into a room to discuss okay how are we what are our strategies what are we doing um and um this has progressed from the first summit being focusing on pipelines creating pipelines um to this uh fifth um summit which
004was okay retention um retention is the the new recruitment. Um and uh so the educator um summit released every year or they have three uh findings that they've released and I actually made copies of it here um the rewriting the retention playbook. Uh and within that they've identified there's uh six shifts with um development, career management, employee experience and leadership, well-being, work life integration, compensation and benefits, recognition and appreciation, strategic retention. The presenters at this summit um spoke to different shifts. Uh one of the first activities that we did um together uh with all participants was to I um at our tables we were given uh a profile. Every table had a different profile um and sorry I'll stay over here. So every table had a different profile and we had to discuss um with
005the uh with the people at our table. we had to act as if we were a district and depending on the profile. Um, so my table had military spouse. Um, had been teaching elementary school for 10 years after relocating and trans transferring her credentials. She has been in her new state for three years. Um, and so they're trying to see, okay, how they how can they keep her in education. She's a military spouse. Um, other tables had there's a teacher a there's a career changer. Um and so we had to look at what are the current barriers um uh that this person um could be facing and what as a district should we implement. Is it a policy? Um are there you know um uh well-being and work life integration that needs to be thought
006of as we're keeping a profile in mind. Um and so it was um it was very useful to engage in these conversations with others to see okay um really what are we doing? How are we moving from that traditional um call to action to really that that create creative strategic um and so there's you know we have strengthening pipelines looking at you know the the the profiles um reimagining recruitment was something that was um talked about and then again retention um what are we doing and how are we um shifting from at um as I mentioned the the profile. So military spouse looking at the different barriers, teacher aids, career changers, what do we need to do to change um uh within the district? What can we implement um in order to keep people here
007and um that may mean um that there's you know we need to strengthen our partnerships. Um we do uh uh have you know going from uh local partnerships, state partnerships, national what is being done to really create a pathway um where we can keep someone in the building and then get them to that becoming an educator. Um because a big discussion was okay educators are leaving the field altogether not just leaving a district. Any questions on any of that that I said? Again, I'm just running through it really quick. I know our time is limited. >> Okay. I just want and I also want to say that there are some current initiatives that we've done to grow our pipeline, you know, including tuition reimbursement, our ESB contract, um, uh, paid leave for student teaching. So,
008if a teacher a teaching assistant um is in a um educator prep program um and they're in our district, then they will um continue to be paid and do their student teaching with within our district. Um so, that's something that's currently already happening. Um within the substitute contract, we did include tuition reimbursement for those working for certification. Um and that has already um benefited um substitutes and benefited us. um as um those teachers are u going into our classrooms um the MOA for uncertified teachers this is um you know a a strategy that we have used and it has been beneficial as we've been able to um get teachers certified that are changing from states um that are finishing up their um uh teacher requirements um and and then also the uh ongoing conversation that
009we currently have going on with um our education prep programs like Sunni Courtland and IA College. Um so I just wanted to mention that those are some current initiatives. Um there was big discussion and and a lot of breakout sessions around how are employees feeling in their buildings? Are they um not only um feeling supported in their current current roles, but what's the pathway of growth? Um not just okay, you've been a teacher for many years and now you'll become a principal, but how can we really like utilize um your expertise and keep you in that teaching role? there was a discussion around that um in addition to like a a complete circle of support. So how are we supporting um teachers from or or any employee really as their um their onboarding their orientation.
010Um and then when we look at specifically instructional um principles, as you'll hear um in just a few minutes as our principles um uh talk about their staff um uh how are principles being supported in their roles? um uh what is the overall circle of of support within the district to foster um the people wanting to stay people wanting to stay in the profession. So uh in one of the breakout sessions that I went to which I actually printed out copies of the document that they provided and I found it interesting. It was a zero to 90day retention um blueprint. Uh you can take a look at it. Um and it asked questions like you know how was the onboarding? How was your um you know how's your support during you know this period 30
011days, 60 days, 90 days. Um and uh this is a benefit when you get into a room um where everyone's thinking about the same thing and saying okay well we're doing this and we're doing this. Um and uh so it just it it allowed for a lot of um thought into what are we currently doing and what can we do. Um and so I I appreciated that. Um we also so Prince Williams County School District which Prince Williams County has about 100 schools um 13 to 18,000 school uh employees pretty large school district um but they were also you know facing the same things right teacher turnover it varied um by school um lack of data um on um faculty staff engagement and retention. You know, we talk about exit surveys, right? And how are
012we capturing that data? Um they they're a large district. They have their own employee relations office. Um and so this is one of their um where they were tackling um you know, how are we going to address these items? Um and what they did was they partnered with a third party to do surveys but also within that to say okay how are we going to measure engagement and then um connect that to retention and so it was nice to hear um how they're utilizing that survey data and then um and in addition utilizing that to provide feedback and support to their um teachers and their principles. So that was um and this is just circle of support. I'm gonna skip to that. Um another um presentation that I really enjoyed and I feel like it's
013a catchy name also teaching the peach and they had buttons and all that. Um so they have a collaboration. It's a a statewide um collaboration. So department of ed with their districts. Um and they have teach in the peach uh website and so someone could go there and say I want to be a teacher. Um I want to switch careers. How do I do it? They can take a quiz. It will direct them to okay their closest district. Um and New York actually has started that initiative as well. We might have done it before then but it um there it's currently still under development. So the teach New York site um you go there and um I invite you all to look at teach in the beach and then look at teach New York. Um,
014Teach New York recently though has tried to like change the search engine um to because if you type in teach in the Google um it will take you to our department of ed but they're two different sites and so they've been recently working with the search engine and also when you type in here you have to actually put in all your information you sorry you have to sign up um it's a little more complicated uh than the teaching the peach you know, you don't have to sign up and give all your information. You're going to get the information. Um, so I invite you all to look at it. It was very interesting. Um, and like I said, there are a lot of conversations right now for um, Teaching New York to also be more developed
015on that. Um there were also um some policy um uh uh representatives there from um DC and um one of the there's um some opportunities for advocacy. The next one there's a Washington week um June 1st through 3 and I just put the link um and Emily will you be able to share that link with them? >> Oh yeah. Okay. Um so that's an opportunity for advocacy to talk about you know right now the current um administration there's a lot of um uh impact to grant funding. Um so uh that event specifically is to bring um educators to come and advocate for the support that's needed in order to um continue um to foster teacher education and um teacher education prep programs and and that's it. I mean tons, but we'll do it another time.
016Okay. I mean, tons and just like how can we take some of this and move forward? Excited to hear what excited you guys and what you feel like things what's going well here already areas to focus on. But we will we will do that another time since we had many many people here and yeah want to be here. >> Thank you. >> But thank you so much for sharing. Really appreciate that. Um, okay. That concludes our public meeting. >> Oh, we have to move to our meeting. >> Well, no, just move to enter session. So, I'll move >> Oh, okay. >> Oh, that's true. Okay. We're >> Adam. I will fedically do what I set forth. I move that the committee enter into executive session pursuant to public officers law 1051F to discuss the employment
017history of particular individuals and matters leading to the tender eligibility determinations. Second. >> Everybody in favor? Okay, great. >> All right, now we close our house meeting. Thanks.