001All right, we're live live. Okay. Um, we are calling the human resources committee uh committee meeting over now. Um, starting with public comment. Do you have any public comment? >> We don't have any public comment. >> Okay. Is there anyone in the crowd here? >> The big crowd. Um uh first thing we will do is to move to Wait, should that be the December January? >> December 9th. >> Is it January 6th? Okay. >> Um I will move to approve the minutes for the January 6 meeting. All right. So, she's like, >> you can control. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool. >> All right. Um, we are back again talking about hiring practices uh uh recruitment and practices. Um, this is now really I made this really totally vague and now I'm kind of totally but
002we were going to do two things. One is that we've spoken a lot um about the kind of uh the the hiring process within the district and how much of that work was informed by the work of the LIC. Um and so uh we have invited Roberto Wallet here today both from from the village. Are you from the v you're from the village? From the village and also a lead member of Elic. Yes. Although EIC doesn't >> Thank you. >> doesn't exist anymore, >> right? >> Um so we would we we would be really grateful if we could hear uh from you. We know that that like a lot of work went into um all of the work that you did, but some of that very much informed the way that um the hiring process
003that is currently in practice here at IC CSD, especially um as it relates to uh ensuring that there are like equitable practices happening in terms of the hiring process itself, that we that candidates are being asked specific questions and asked to write um statements it really uh helped to communicate their both their understanding of and also like their experience with um kind of promoting equitable practices within the classroom. Um, so we were both interested in kind of hearing a little bit about that part of the work that you all did. And then second, we have spoken specifically about within the hiring process about the hiring committees and who sits on those committees. And recently learned that it's the village that it's kind of the uh community liaison for um putting a community member on the
004interview board interview committees. Um so wanted to also hear a little bit about what that process has looked at. We we got an email from um our fellow board member Karen Yearwood earlier today that helped us understand a little bit more about what how she was involved in that work for a long time. So maybe just to be able to share a little bit more and assuming that that practice is still happening what it looks like. So that's a lot. I know better. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So you want me to >> Yeah. Go first. Yeah. Great. >> Um so probably you all know that I was a teacher in the district for a long time. Um, I had three children who all went through the Ithaca school district. Um, who I love dearly and
005who I wanted to get the best education they possibly could. And because I was already in the system, I I actually was able to intervene when I needed to advocate for them. Um, as a teacher, some of the way I entered into this is that I I was an elementary teacher. I had children, particularly children of color, who were brilliant and creative and wonderful. Um, and I saw that as they went through the school district, they ended up not graduating. And I saw that as a problem, although I didn't fully understand what what the problem was. Um, but all the children I taught were my children, just like my three children. And I tended to advocate for them in the same way that I advocated for my children. And I hope as board members you
006see yourselves in that same light as advocating for all the children because I I mean I think you all have children in the district. Is that right? And so you know how you feel about your kids and what they're getting and do you feel that way about all the children? So something to think about. Um, I first started being involved with the hiring process when uh Deborah Manning was the affirmative action director. So, we're talking about decades ago. and she recruited people to be on the affirmative action committee. And part of that, what we did, those of us who were doing that, was we were trained by her to serve on hiring committees. and specifically to serve on hiring committees to make sure that the the process was um equitable. And I in the book
007I wrote, I wrote a whole chapter about the hiring process if you ever feel inclined to get more history than I'm going to give you tonight. Um so I'm just going to read a little section. At that time, I remember sitting on hiring committees with other teachers, administrators, and parent reps. We would read over the applications, and then a teacher might say, "I think we should hire Sally. She is my friend's daughter, and she would fit right in." And the teacher who made this comment was white, and so was Sally. This pattern of practice carried on for many decades, resulting in replicating the demographic makeup and culture of the district. If there were a candidate of color, some member of the committee might say, "We need to hire the most qualified person," implying that a
008person of color could not be the most qualified. It was always challenging to push against that mindset. And I'm reading this to indicate where we started from. It was like that. That's how it was over and over again. Hiring people that looked like the people who are serving on the hiring committees. Um So after the board ended the affirmative action office, the village at Ithaca which started in around 2000 took over the recruitment and training of folks to serve on hiring committees with the same goals in mind. Um and at that time um I remember that uh Mike Plinka Lair who was part of the committee I was on in the village went to Judy Pastelle who was superintendent at the time and said that the village was going to be doing that. Um, and
009what Mike was doing was just sending out postings to the village list saying, you know, we need somebody. And I said to him, "Do you ever find out if anybody actually volunteered for the committee?" And he said, "No, I don't have time to do that." So I said, "How about if I take that over?" And and so I kind of I've been doing it ever since, although I have not been doing it this year because after EILC passed away, I I just stopped doing it. just although I if if somebody else would like to take it on I would be delighted. Um, and so I did I did trainings with anybody who volunteered and at the beginning we called it a community rep because there was a slot in the hiring process to have a
010community rep. And then that was really confusing because people anybody in the community thought that that meant they could be on it. And I would get calls and I would say, well, um, it's not just anybody can do it, but I would be happy to give you a training if you'd like so that you can serve on the committee. And that was the last I heard from them because they really didn't want to do that. They did not want to do it from the perspective of equity. Um, so why does it matter who's on the hiring committees? Right? Because that seems like the question that you're kind of asking. Um, if we don't have people who are intentionally on the committee for the purpose of making sure that we hire teachers who are culturally competent,
011who are conscious about their own identity and how that impacts how they present as teachers. Um, we are going to just keep replicating the the people who don't know how to teach children of color. And I would say that for the children of color in our district to have somebody in a position of power as a teacher is or as any employee of the district is um is a it tells them that they can do this too. Um, and there actually used to be we used to have a um can't remember what we called it. be a teacher, be a hero. Something like that where we actually did uh after school classes for children who thought they might want to be teachers or don't even know they might want to be teachers yet to inspire
012them to consider becoming a teacher. And that was a great thing. I mean, I I taught that class for a while, then other people did it. Um, I don't know what happened to it. That's a good question. Um, I think it's equally important for children like my children, my personal children, for all the white children to have a teacher of color. And and I I see in my children as as they became adults that that that having had those experiences carried over into their professional lives in ways that um never could have otherwise. Um so so it's it's good for all the children to have a diversity of people standing or sitting in the room with them who are leading their educational work. And um it's really important who is sitting in those hiring committees
013and whether they understand why it's important to either be hiring candidates of color or because most of the candidates are white to hire white teachers. who get it, who know how to do this. And um I had had written this this piece years ago um about what what does a teacher who is culturally competent and responsive look like? And um I wrote it because it seemed like people didn't quite understand what that meant and and we we used this as part of our training. I mean I wrote my draft of it and then my friends from action edited it with me. um which made it even better. And um unless unless you have had some kind of training around this, which it seems like maybe the education schools don't do. Um you you might not
014understand. And um and and I think given my own life experience um I when I came into this I thought I was really I knew everything. I've been doing this work. I you know and I didn't. I totally didn't. and and it's taken a lot of work on my part. I mean I actually that was why I did a sebatic and went to UMass to study with Sonetto who's the queen of multicultural education because I saw that things were not right here but I didn't have the language to talk about it and once I had learned the language then I could come back and talk about what I was saw happening. Um I I taught for a really horrible year at Ithaca High School after my came back from my sebatic. Um, Judy Pastel would
015not let me back to Bell Sherman where I was teaching in a wonderful school um that was based on having an anti-racist school community. She wouldn't let me back. She put me at the high school, which I could do because I had an ESL certification by then. Um, and what I saw at the high school was so depressing to me. I don't know if it's any better now than it was then, but it it was not about children. And, you know, I taught elementary school, so I was about children. In high school, it was about subject matter. teachers cared about whether they were teaching math or English or whatever, but they didn't care about they and I, you know, not a 100% there was some teachers there that cared, but I remember sitting with a
016um somebody who was a hall monitor, I guess, that they they I they may still have in the high school sitting in all the halls and and they when somebody would walk by during a time when class was in session, they would ask them, you know, do you have a pass? Where are you going? Whatever. But when the black kids walked by, nobody stopped them because they were afraid of them. These white teachers were afraid of the black kids who were their students. um not at all culturally competent and not at all and what the message they gave to those students is we don't care about you if you're skipping class we don't care that's the message um so so so the I mean there are just so many reasons if you want to know
017more about it read my book. Um, I think that it's a loss that we are are no longer having people on the committees who come in with the sole purpose of thinking about equity. Um, I I but there's just so much I can do. I've kind of I've done my bit and I'm old and tired. Um, >> can I take over there? >> You have to go. >> Yeah. >> Is that okay? >> Sure. >> Yeah. So, um, I'm here because Robera asked me to go and be come and I have like a couple rules that I live by and one of them is doing whatever Robera asks me to do. Um, >> will you just just for people watching just >> Oh, I'm Marl Pitz. I'm the current executive director at The Village in
018Ithaca. Um, uh, as Robera talked about, the village has been around since early 2000s, and I'm actually the only only the third ED in that entire tenure. So, it was Cal Walker, the amazing Cal Walker, who's still a district employee uh, for the first eight years. Then Karen Yearwood, who's on the board, love me, you know, so it's a lot of shoes to fill. Um, and I started in fall 2019 and that is I met Robert on my very first day and there was a very big argument at the ELC subcommittee meeting that we attended. We'll talk about it later. But um um so EALC, I don't know how much you've talked about ELC at the board, but the equity and inclusion leadership committee, which also came out around the same time that the village
019was founded, was really coming out of a time where incredibly overt racism and bias was taking place sort of across the cuff the country, across the district. >> It's when Judy passed out. It was not better. >> And when we really needed people in the room saying things like you can't only hire teachers who look like you, you can't hire your best friend sister, you know, and that's, you know, that's sort of the origin of all of that work. It's the same origin of EIC. And I think one, you know, less Roberta who has been saying, I'm not going to do this anymore and I'm old and tired since I met her six years ago and who's still here on a Tuesday night. um you know was sort of explained to me the history and
020talked about the the village reps and you know what I have sort of noticed the same thing that Robera has which is that the so the village in terms of appointing committee reps has tried to still be it has always been the same. It has been to get people in the room who have purely an eye on equity. And so when we are contacted by people, we say the point is to be a representative to multiple committees in the room with an eye specifically on equity. Please go meet with Dr. Wlet and get a training. You know, that's sort of what happens. But there's a lot of sort of structural barriers to that kind of participation in the process that I think deter people from doing that work. I think there's also I'm glad to
021be having this conversation because there's definitely confusion about what that work is, right? So I think you know so we did take over we're trying to send emails the sort of same model that we talked about and nobody's available for multiple hours during the workday um unless you have a certain amount of power and privilege which maybe means you're not who we're looking for you know but I also think that it's not been clear to me at least in my tenure in this iteration of HR which has implemented wonderful systemic change like under glad here is leadership and in which the structure of the interviews hopefully when done well and done right do not allow for the type of incidents that Robera described and in fact are so closely structured that it's not super clear
022what stakeholder input means anymore and so in general when I work with marginalized folks youth and families I never ask someone to sign up for something unless I know I I can prompt an outcome Right. So, especially as someone who is going to take off work or who's going to, you know, put a lot of like emotional time and investment into this type of volunteer labor, I want to be able to like promise that it matters and that it and I I'm not saying that it doesn't at this point, but I'm I'm not super clear that it does. And I also think it would be helpful to know like is this something we still think is necessary? What is the difference between participation from an equity lens and just general community participation? What are we
023looking for from that type of representative? I mean, I as like a personal pitch and I think that that I've been sort of suggesting for quite some of time is I would actually rather seeing student representation on the hiring committees. I'd like them to be excused from their classes and get credit for their time and have it count as something because I think that our I mean they know way more >> does that >> we do they have a student represent Yes. So I think there's there's definitely this is a great time to revisit what this looks like and to ask people do we think community participation is important? Do we think equity driven participation is important? How is it different? How is it similar? Um how are stakeholders assured that it matters that they
024take two days off of work and come do this? Or if we really are valuing stakeholder can how can we shift our hiring participation? What are our goals? I do also think that I know Glutier has talked about this too is that um when you're recruiting candidates, particularly candidates of color coming from larger cities that have much larger populations of color and you're trying to sell them on moving to Ithaca, New York, it can be helpful to not sit in a room full of white interviewers. So, is that our goal? Like, I just I think this is I have a lot of questions. I think Roberta and our original village and ELC have done systemic work that is just beautiful and shocking and admirable. And if you look at our report cards, we're a lot
025of like, you know, our kids are experiencing the same inequities. It's just different inequity and it's not any less racist. I tried looking up the on the latest report card, but I couldn't find it. What the current proportion of students of color and and staff of color. And when I wrote the book, which was a while ago now, it was 35% students of color and 5% staff of color. But I don't know if that's changed any um because I could could I just couldn't find it and I actually wrote sent Lena an email asking her and she didn't get back to me. So I don't know. >> Well, and that's a conversation we've had at the Village Court is how does that data get reported? Is self-reported data good enough data to share? What are
026the privacy concerns around asking staff to self-report racial demographics? So, I think there's there's so many layers of this entire conversation, but it's a good one to be having. Um, I also and I I wasn't here for the entire time students were here, but it's so interesting to hear Roberta talk about the black and brown children being ignored by the hall monitors when all of our black and brown children are currently talking about just being overpoliced in the hall. So, it's like like we haven't we're not better, we're just different. So maybe if we think about a way to do things differently, we could see some change and we're here to help if you want, I think. Right. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that. I just just hearing it made me realize that I
027didn't even understand the purpose of the community representative that you were um helping to appoint to these committees in the first place. I I did not I I did not understand. I had no idea that it was like an equity focus. >> That was not clear. >> That's why we were asking. I think the question first came up because we were like >> like it sounded like it was just like anyone from the community and it just happened to be being filtered through you all. >> That's what brought the question up. They said if it's if it's a community rep, why is it coming from one organization? >> Yes. >> And that was unclear. >> Yeah. We changed the name to village record at some point because it was clearly confusing. >> That's that's helpful.
028Yeah. So that that makes a ton of sense and and I wasn't thinking about it that way. So I have lots of questions that I'm sure are not going to like come to me. >> Jacob is in here because I I watched the last meeting and and he clearly was also uninformed about a lot. Okay. >> Although I do remember when his father was on school listening as >> um yeah so that's very helpful to understand. I um and I also know that Gladira does you do your own kind of training of everyone who's going to be interviewing. Um, so I think there there's more to learn about how those th those kind those trainings like differing is great. I mean, you know that I I think in some way she you cover a lot
029about bias and, you know, putting equity at focus. >> Yeah. I've been I've been through that training. Um so yeah that'll give us like a whole different frame of thinking about and I think the questions are really valid about is this even the right >> and and you know there there are people who are I I'm on this uh list for next door >> people are so uninformed >> and so racist >> Yeah >> and and hostile toward all kinds of things around the district, but they don't understand and and there are probably people who don't think we should be diversifying our workforce, you know, I I who are Yeah. So it it's just um really important to maintain and and at this point you know one of the things that EILC used to do
030is when there would be new hires of color, we would um you know I can remember taking somebody around town and tell it, you know, this is where this school is and and bringing them inside and introducing them to people at GIA and and at Southside that it's not easy to come to Ithaca as a person of color, as I'm sure people can verify for me. Um, and so what are we doing to retain? And so I don't know. I mean, I'm sure you're doing whatever you can do. Um, >> that I think that leads me to a point I wanted to make too, which is that, you know, this is the HR committee and I thrilled to be here and I think that the stakeholder piece is just such a small piece of how
031to ensure equitable treatment of all the people in our system. And I'm not sure like if I had to pick one to be putting my energy to like I if we were focusing on this piece, I would also be like to know about like future accountability for hired staff and future accountability around retention and like it's it it can't just be one slice of it. It has to be all of it. Um and I know you do it for an hour twice a month, right? Once a month. Cool. So get right on that everybody. Um, but I I do think it's not a question to to look at in a vacuum. I think it's part of a whole package. Um, and I I don't like to be part of any initiative with like the village
032in the name that I don't feel like we're doing super well. And like right now, I I cannot recruit village representations to serve on board like hiring committees in the middle of the day. You know, it's just not possible. But I'd like to do better if it's a thing that is valued and important and we see as part of a larger >> a larger implementation. Yes, >> Merryill to your point and also Robera, thank you. And I love your water bottle. Like you're talking about kids and it's just like >> it's awesome. >> Yes. This my daughter gave to me when my grandson was born. >> It's it's perfection. >> Yeah. Um, so I first off I like I I cannot thank you both enough, but thank you for the history and and just this
033is amazing. And I'm just sitting here thinking about one I want to like pull you aside and just talk to you about like what you've seen and all. I I >> I would be glad to get together with you. >> It would be amazing. I think I've we've been saying that for years, but also books available on Amazon. I was gonna say, well, I'm gonna make sure there's an audio copy because I can't. >> It's on Kindle. >> There we go. Okay. Anyway, >> I I'm like so curious, you know, and I I want to say this not as something I believe, but like you're talking about what's on Next Door, you know, just that the whole idea when you said affirmative action and and being the age I am and hearing people over the
034years say, "Oh, we don't need that anymore." And Merryill to what you just said when you're talking about future accountability for hiring and retention all these things and us only being here you know once a as a board though I'm curious we have you here we're talking about all the work that Gladier is doing I would love your input on policies or things that we can do as a board to improve upon this that are embedded in what we do as a district. So, we're not back at this place. So, yeah, we can't make things happen right away, but what are things we should be starting to consider based on your vast like history and knowledge and watching everything work to both maintain but also improve and embed a way to do this into the
035work that we do. So when Gladeras moves on or Zach moves on or whatever and I agree like people do not have the time or energy to volunteer. So in bed >> I I'm telling you I think like >> student voice and not you know student voice coming from a place of lived experience with inequity is an easy solution. I don't know if there's some bar to I don't see why not because it's not like I don't know but um they're available during the day. You know where they are and they know what they need. And I think that the training early years training is great. Roberto's training is great. Double training. Our kids are smart. I mean, I would love to put student villager rats on hiring committees, especially if they were valued for
036their time and input as long as they feel like they're there for a reason and they're being heard, you know. >> Well, not only that, but to me, that's something that could go for, you know, you think about college applications or job applications like that is right there and there. You help them build a resume. Yes. And that goes right on it. >> Yeah. And that's I think you know Esther who was here in the previous meeting says something I love so much where she's always like building a relationship with me makes your job easier. So like kids can see like oh this is a person who I'm gonna want to connect with and I am going to make their job easier because I was in their hiring committee and I remember what they said
037and we have already begun building a relationship you know um that'd be cool hiring committee >> and I I don't I should know this and maybe I could look it up but I'm ask like dear your trainings that you do are though is that something that is part of the systems of HR Like I I think about like standard opportunity and institutional knowledge that is passed on. If you were to like like say, "Oh my god, I got a job opportunity somewhere." Please don't. But you know, like is that embedded? Is this something that is is stuck with us and not just personto person? >> Yeah. So we offer that once a month. >> Um and all of our employees can um either if they're an employee, they can enroll on our frontline professional development.
038Um I currently have slides that go through the process. Um and it's a requirement in order to be on a hire uh on a hiring committee. >> So it is very you know embedded. I mean the um >> it's not just for staff. It's >> for everyone. Yes. >> But it exists on glare's computer and implemented by someone else who comes and takes and I think I pin to it like three times. So it's it is pretty consistent. >> The next thing um we were thinking of was actually making it a um like a vector training where you can go in there's the questionnaires um and do like a voice over. So then it's there um and then it just needs to be improved you know the language improved. >> And I have sorry one
039other question while all these brilliant minds are here because something that comes up in a lot of our meetings is the idea that our interview and application process some the questions in there might be hindrance to someone applying. I can't I know Jacob says this a lot. I can't remember specifically what it is but is it an essay or something? And I would love to have your input based especially Robera based on the rich history you have on >> the the questions on the application is something I was involved in creating. So obviously you know I have a bias. Um, but they were are really important to me as somebody looking through my lens in in being able to determine whether somebody is um has potential even if even if they don't if they don't
040know it all yet because because a lot of a lot of young people coming out of college don't get it. But if they can answer the that question in a way that shows that they think about this, that they care about it, that they might have had life experiences that impact their what whatever. >> Um, but I would also say I mean I have read thousands of applications probably. Um there are very small number that really answer well and when somebody does I go whoa we want to hire this person tomorrow because because they clearly get it. Um, and so the questions are important for that purpose for being able to die. I think the questions are also important for the applicants to say, "Oh, this is something I cares about." Um, I I don't
041want to apply for a job here. And if that's the case, don't apply. you know, I I it might scare some people away and if it does, they shouldn't be here. That's that's what I think. Um and and I think the whole hiring scene right now is not good, right? There are just not as many people coming out of school. And I I've been telling the dear she should she should target somehow find all these people who are getting fired because they read a banned book in their class. >> Right. That we want you. >> Yeah. >> But I don't know exactly know how to do that. I I was because they're they're but but if they're in Florida, which is really the last place in the world I would ever want to teach, um
042would they want to come to Ithaca? You know, >> I do have a a thought based on your question that I do I agree. I mean, I love I love the questions. I think they're important. I think also they're currently optional still. Is that right? or they like red starred. >> They're mandatory. Okay. Um because I do think that it's not so much about whether your answer is perfect. It's it's about the intention behind your answer. I als I do think that there's going to kill me. But I would be interested in an option of like an alternative show what you know for people who communicate better in different ways and maybe have a hard time and you know particularly candidates of color who have to answer the sort of like diversity questions and like
043how do you subtly say hey guys like this is my life you know so I think it'd be interesting if there were maybe an alternative rather than to the essay questions about like submitting a personal video or a you know whatever I'm just you know I mean I like different methods of communication being available to people depending on their learning styles as does my friend. So, um I think that >> I love that idea. It's very very that targets young folks and you get to see how they can >> well I think you know we at the village hire a lot of people with experience in the issues we we combat so with racism with homelessness um in particular and that can be really hard to answer those questions without separating yourself and you don't
044know from a overwhelming list of questions whether you are supposed to be talking about yourself personally whether you're not whether it's whether it's like not professional to be talking about yourself. So, I think like a really clear invitation to be like if you'd like to share about your personal >> Yeah. I think that >> the kids they love their voice notes. >> No, you thinking about how actors now like you know they audition with with their cameras like why not allow that on an application process. Talking about that. >> I kind of like that. Um I just came actually from one of our tech committees and we have the AI committee coming up and one of the this will connect I promise the one of the things I wonder is with the prevalence of like
045AI writing tools us h it is likely that folks are going to just find a get a prompt put it in have some have it written for them. So when we look at so when we have conversations with teachers about instruction in the classroom and they're they voice similar concerns one of the things we say is or I say is we might have to look at how we can assess learning differently or assess experience differently and you know obviously our interview is going to give us one window but a video or audio message could also do something similar now there's still the same perhaps concerns about AI and different different uses but different avenues can give us mechanisms to assess candidates. Worth thinking for sure. >> You know the part of the thing is once
046you hire somebody they need to be mentored and that has not always been good. I it it has not always been done in a in a way that helps people when they are struggling with this. And you know I I mean when when Dr. Holly used to do the the staff development stuff. Um and and he he was he was always a great teacher. But but then when people started trying to be the kind of teacher he was teaching for they and they they didn't quite know how to do it if it wasn't natural to them. And I I kind of remember kids saying, "What's she doing all this sudden?" You know, um >> I think I think that that's a really important point and I think that part of what I'm thinking about when
047we're tackling this and to your point, Marilyn, it's like it's not just like one piece, it's like the whole thing. And so in the little the little bit that we're thinking about, it's like how do we recruit the candidates that we hope will work in ICS both by um promoting it in the right way, sharing like who we really are. Like I want people to like self- select out as much as they can as opposed to like us having to like you know really dig in there and see like what am I really hearing now? Especially because not everybody has the training on the other side to even like like you said the word of like thoughtfully see what their intentions were on writing that prompt. Like I don't know that everybody would even know
048how to identify that who needed to kind of read that statement. And so I I think that what I would love to see is both like on the front end opportunities to really promote the district in a way that talks about how unique it is and what being able to teach in this district why it is so very different from a lot of other districts. So the people either say that totally is not in line with my philosophy or oh my god I would never like this is like a dream come true. And so being able to say that off of the bat off the bat and then the reason that we were like talking about that statement is because I care I have those same I I worry that pe like more well- educated
049people who have been trained on how to write really eloquently are going to write something even if they don't mean a word that they say or they'll use AI or they're like I I think that it's um like eluding enough that you're like okay they want me to say X Y and Z so I'll just say that. Um, so there's like the piece beforehand of like come to us if you've really seen like who we are and are still attracted to this. Then here's the hiring process where it limits the number of um barriers that are going to like just you know reduce the chances of you going through whether it's oh gosh I need to submit a video well I don't have to for this school district but I do for this I guess
050I'll apply to them or do I need to write a personal whatever but then making sure that the people that are interviewing have like the best strongest questions that are and and allow an interview process that's going to really allow um uh the interviewee to be able to kind of like speak and share their experiences so that you could hear it in that moment. And then there's the piece about the mentorship afterwards and the professional development so that by the end of that first year, if not before that, they're like, "Oh, this is either definitely not like the place that I need to be or wow, I I have been I've really been integrated into the system and have been allowed to see all of the things that like make it so wonderful." So just
051so that you know like why we're starting to think about these different things. It's not because there's any piece that's like we want to get rid of but more about like how can we communicate and capture all pieces in a way that we're still identifying the things that are most important in candidates and doing it in a kind of more in a way that's going to allow us to hire and see and hire as many people as we can. But we have so few candidates right now period. Um, >> right. I mean that's that's part of the problem. >> Yeah. >> Is that >> I mean I can remember be being on being part of hiring committees and having some administrators saying we just need a warm body in the room at this point. >>
052Yeah, that's definitely happening like I mean across the country with with teaching which is why I mean it's kind of a joke about Florida. The other thing that we used to do was how to grow your own. Um that that there were people who were working in a district as um you know aids or whatever and how can we help them to get their teaching system. Yeah. And I, you know, I felt like the district could do more to support people's tuition, for example. Um, because if you're talking about people who have aid positions, they don't make all that much money to be able to put out. Um, there are a lot of things that could be done. And I I actually worked with a couple of those people who then became teachers. And we
053had for a short while we had the Ben Nichols Fund where we provided money, financial assistance to people for books and all miscellaneous stuff. Um, so you know, it's it's there's a lot of things that could be done, but how it depends on how much energy people have to put into it. >> Yeah. >> Um, and I don't know what the demographics are anymore. I mean, there used to be a lot more people of color working at uh as aids or teaching assistants or whatever than than teachers of color. And so it to me it seemed like a really perfect place to go. I also >> worked with a couple of people who never never took the leap. Yeah, >> because it felt like too much for them to do. Um and again, you know,
054going back to the grow our own, we could be doing things with starting with with students and and I think that label has done some of that >> really. >> We did start a aspiring educator. >> Yeah. >> program. Yes. >> Yeah. >> And we have had a few people um take advantage of the ESP in the educator support professionals contract. There's um tuition reimbursement for 50% of the the tuition. And there have been um uh some of our current teachers that have benefited from um doing that taking that tuition reimbursement. And also when they're in their student teaching, they can also be paid um during their student teaching time. So what we have um and it's just getting the word out there. We recently just started the ESP mentor program to help ESPs, new
055ESPs be successful in their education support professional role, but also once they've gotten their grounding in that, then okay, here's here's other things you can look at. Here's how you can get your teaching assistant certification. So we're thinking in line of that of of of supporting education support professionals in that way as well. Yeah. So >> okay. Oh sorry one super quick that's another way that the village has been really traditionally involved with hiring is to try to recruit um people for ESP positions. And I will say that that can be really challenging because the financial barrier is really tough and it's really hard to be a successful professional if like you can't afford to get to work regularly because you don't have transportation. like you certainly can't cover the other 50% of the tuition
056and perhaps the teacher in the classroom doesn't treat you respect with respect or you know I mean there's just we've had a we've actually recruited quite a few former ICSD students to become ESPs and almost none of them last for a variety of different reasons and there's a you know there's a lot of reasons for that that they could talk to you about um and you know ESPs who would be incredible teachers if we could if we could get them there we definitely lose them pretty Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. >> Yeah. Which is why we started that mentor program hoping is it just um launched just recently. So hoping that um for retention and also to help you know get that grow grow our own as well back in >> in motion. >>
057That's really challenging. I mean this is what the entire early childhood field is is trying to do. They're like forcing people to go back and get their bachelors and then sort of helping supplement with that. >> We do also pay bigger printing costs if people need that. >> Right. Yeah. Yep. >> Just >> All right. Well, second time in a row we've had such fruitful conversations that I've haven't gotten to the majority of the things on the on the agenda. And Mary, I'm sorry that I were going to be here anyway. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. Yeah. Don't a huge thank you to both of you for coming and engaging in the conversation. Do you want to like hold your book up for the camera? classroom teacher or co-spirit >> amazon.com everybody I'm quitting I'm just
058gonna pop around >> well thank you genuinely I think is really helpful and lots of information that we didn't totally have and I think will help to continue the conversation and as I said to your reps do you call the students reps too or your board members >> your students uh the kids um >> you know this we hope that this will just be the start of the conversation and it sounds like you already have lots of ideas that we could hear many many more of and as we're thinking about kind of how to approach this and as you know we meet once a month and are trying to do something I want to like walk away at the end of this year feeling like something happened um so hope to continue the conversation certainly
059welcome thoughts and feedback as as we go on thank you >> thank you Ah, eating a jerk.