001and start with public comment. Do we have any public comments? >> We don't. >> No public comment. Anyone here to fantastic? Um, so uh did you all have an opportunity to review the minutes from the last? >> No. >> Good. Um >> y okay minutes it's approved from the September 2nd work session um and then we will move on to our discussion items and we have um our excellent HR basically the whole team here um to share a number of presets and we're going to start with hiring updates. Yeah. So, we have take us through that in just a second. We're gonna go through our >> How about now? How about now? >> Oh, yeah. >> All right. So, we have and the slides will go up in a minute, but uh we have a
002slide slide deck prepared. We'll go over um hiring teacher. So very sure uh terms of like special education uh that is a continuous recruitment area. Uh what our current situation is and it has been for the last several years is oftentimes special education teachers take on what we call an overage. Um, so there's a lot of special educary level that will take essentially extra classes or extra case loads and that's how we balance out a lot of those numbers. But um, you know, we both recogn all recognize that that's not a that's not ideal, but that's how we build that. And similarly that's the same with um some of our science and math yeah science and math positions as well. Uh other things to note uh um these also are dynamic right because uh those
003are there's definitely needs that we have and want to fill and we're continuously recruiting. Um but right now we are we are able to staff our classes. There's no, just to speak there, there's no classes where folks, students show up and there's not a teacher. Um, but in a perfect world, we wouldn't have those big. >> I had a question about the school psychologist line only that just like looks like almost four out of 14 positions open. I was just wondering, are you trying to add positions and that's why we have vacancies or are we like down core school psychologist and then what's the impact of that? Yeah, good question. Um, so, uh, we we are down and so for some of these RSPs, related service providers. We contract out with other agencies to to
004get the services. So, that's so I ideally we would have a have those psychologists on staff, you know, as part of our u, you know, you know, ITA members, part of our our unit in our buildings, part of the community. Um and instead what we do is we contract out um for different services to meet the special education. So >> So like what's an like if you contract out a school psychologist is it like a clinical psychologist in the community or like who would it who would it be that would come and take that role? >> Uh I mean it's it'd be a range. It could in theory it could be that. Um there's also staffing agencies that facilitate that. They find people with specific certifications. There's also companies I don't know that we're doing
005this for psychology right now but uh that provide like tea >> tea psychology the same thing is true with speech services a lot of these services so so there's a spectrum of services u you know a future discussion that we might want to have would be uh we could have special education folks come in and we could talk about how we meet some of the staff needs because that that is a common one but basically it's a range um and that can a quick I have questions for the end, but I just want a quick clarifying question. Um, speech and hearing teacher, is that the same as an SLP and just call it a speech and hearing teacher, speech language pathologist? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Okay. But we just call it that because it's such
006a confusing term or >> uh I think that's just how it's coded in our system. >> Yeah, we actually refer speech language pathologist. Yeah. It's it's the way it is in >> the same way. Okay. Okay. So, it's not like we have speech and hearing teachers. It's actually just an SLP, >> right? Yeah. Similarly like library media specialists also librarians like there's just >> any other questions. >> Oh, I'll say mine. >> Um well that's the that's that our next thing we're going to go into the recruitment the challenges. So we could if you have questions about that we could now would be the time >> I think. Yeah. Why don't we do some questions on this first part you have them? So, you said like students always have a teacher. Good. Um, can you
007speak to like what do you track data around long-term substitutes? Like when you say everyone has a teacher, is that like full-time personnel or are some of those? >> Yeah. So, the there are long-term substitutes um and they are actually also under the ITA um staff. Um uh some a portion of those are also um which are considered long-term subs working towards certification um and will have um certification by the end of the school year. >> Um but in terms of so there's a couple classifications for subs, right? There's daily subs, right? I I call I'm sick, someone comes in. Then we have extended assignment subs. Um, I'm really sick and I get a medical note. I'm going to be out for three weeks, right? We're going to bring someone in as an extended assignment
008sub and that sub is going to uh um, you know, take on the grade book, take on some lesson planning. It's like a more it's not just a oneoff, right? And then, uh, if that extended assignment goes over 90 days, they become a long-term sub, and then they sort of that's a different threshold. Um, and all there's there's contractual language with multiple bargaining units about how all of this works. Um, um, but if it's over 90 days, it then becomes a a member of the ITA teacher and um, they take vulnerable there. And those all those occur for a host of different reasons. Um um I don't think we have any situations where a extended assignment sub is maybe one or two is in for a super long time but usually or like starting the
009year with no plan but usually the extended assignment subs is like you know the hold over until a new person is put in place or there's been a posting or what however it might be. >> Thank you for teaching me. >> Sure. >> If there's a long-term slip that's in for like an entire year. um in a classroom does their uh does their uh count to countdown towards um tenure evaluation took in then or >> Great question. Uh it is dependent upon their certification. So if they're so if I'm uh I was a social studies teacher so if I'm a social studies long-term sub right meaning they brought me in for a year um that's just a one year appointment then I'm done. But if I am then brought back uh as a or a
010full-time hire, you get a JREMA, it's called a JREMA credit, which then that tenure is truncated by or shortened by a year that path because you've already done. >> Okay. And is that both for certified and working towards >> only for certified? Uh if you're working towards certification, uh you can only start tenure on the day that you become certified in New York State. So, even if you're certified in Oklahoma and you're coming here and you have everything you need, if you know, you might we might have you start teaching, but until you're certified by New York State, um you don't you can't start your tenure process. And that's not us decision. That's a that's a under nice. >> Thank you. Any other questions about that first piece? Just the data. Okay. All right. Thank
011you. So, um I want to take a little bit of time and sort of talk uh about the recruitment uh landscape and the challenges we face. And these are just my uh my notes that I thought we could talk through a little bit. Uh and uh this Trisha will have this in um >> boards >> in board docs and I actually there's some articles that I even put in or to site some of these pieces as well if you want to go back. um just for fun. So, uh nationally, uh there are national and statewide teacher shortages. There's a a whole host of articles and pieces of information about that. Um those those are especially acute as we saw just moments ago um in our slides um in our STEM areas meaning science, technology, um
012math um and then special education and then our related service roles uh speech uh psychology. So those those are the areas that were that are you know there's shortages everywhere. Um, and the two things we're seeing is that, uh, there's fewer certified candidates that are metriculating into preparation programs, right? So, there's just like less folks coming into the pipeline. Um, and then at the same time, uh, teacher turnover and retirements peaked right through the pandemic. uh we have not reached nationwide I think we were hitting about 10% turnover um nationwide in 2022 23 um sort of right at the end of the pandemic area >> and then now we've dipped back down to closer to the norms but we're still above the norm by about 1% so nationwide I think it's 6% is the norm
013in the documents I was looking at and we're still nationwide at about seven so that's um the reason I say that is we're in a landscape where when I was a teacher first applying to jobs in 2005 or whatever uh social studies certified districts were getting 200 candidates for one posting um uh we're we're similar postings now we're probably you know advertised the same sent out in the same similar pathways we're seeing probably the social studies we might get 10 to 15 candidates. Um, and then for these other areas we're getting, it's much much harder. So that's just just a shortage overall. Then that doesn't mean we can't do things, but that's like the big one of the big things that's out there to start. Other things to consider when we're recruiting. Uh, I love
014Ithaca. You know, I I grew up in the region, left, came back. Um, but it's geographically isolated. It's not even that like we're not connected to the world, but we're there's not like a pocket of people other than in our community. if you go 20 miles outside of our community, there's not another community with another 100,000 people in their county or whatever that we can draw from. So, we we are uh limited in that. And then if folks are going to either commute or relocate um there's challenges with that as well. So, that's a that's a something that as we think about recruitment and retention, we have to think about that. Um, also we talked about turnover, but there's also just um retirements um with more folks uh less folks uh entering programs there. We
015also have folks leaving. Um so that's a challenge. And then uh ultimately what this means is in our region we're competing with resources uh in what we call like the supply constrained market with our other regional schools. uh school districts are some of the largest employers in every town in New York State, right? So, uh if you talk to any of our vendor partners that we work with like in technology or things like that, they they know all the schools believe every single town or lo locality has a school and they all need English teachers and math teachers and special education teachers and speech and psychology and all the different pieces. So, we are fighting over the same um same candidates. Um and then the last piece is that uh though we we are seeing
016a a bit of a softening in our uh in in our applicant or some changes in our applicant pools but uh external labor markets are a draw. we lose um uh I'll I'll share like my my wife was a teacher and she now works for a college, right? So um and she works for a STEM technology division, right? Like so we lose we lose certified folks to private industry and then being in a college town to to those colleges as well. So those are those are like the the big pieces that I see as and we're going to talk a little bit more about uh strategies and how we dive into it. But those are the things I see as like the the some of the landscapes as sort of very sort of the generic
017not generic but like the just sort of like factual challenges that we are faced with. But um before I go on I there questions about that there's also could be some pieces of that I missed as well but those are that's sort of kind of how I thought about it. I'm curious, Zach, with the last one in particular with things changing with Cornell and IC and like it feels like it could be either or both and because they're less hiring. Could are we having more opportunity to hire teachers, but there's less people moving here this even out because they're not recruiting either. >> Um, we should invest in a magic ball and figure that out. But more seriously, uh I can say we're seeing in our EA roles, meaning like uh custodial, transportation, uh clerical
018staff, we're seeing, I'd say, a shift in our candidate pool, a lot more folks applying to library clerk jobs, um administrative assistant jobs, like those. So, and a lot of those folks do have again anecdotally connections to our um our part our university partners in our community. So, what we have seen is I'd say there are some like labor opportunity pieces there where we we are getting candidates. I don't know that we'll see the impact on teaching candidates in quite the same way because of uh the certification pathways and how that you know it's it's a it's a much bigger challenge to go say all right I'm going to go get certified in physics even if you have a doctorate in physics it's not always like a slam dunk to get certified and when we
019talk about um potential solutions you know there's some some probably some advocacy to do at a state level about transitional pathways and different opportunities unities for to get folks. Um but that we have seen that I would say on the in the science side we we have had more interest from folks who have have inquired to us like hey how would I get certified if I wanted to teach biology or you know whatever it might be. So potential it's there for sure. >> Yeah. Every year I would say we get um a few people who are interested in pursuing the transitional G certificate which is um if you have taught higher ed I believe it's a couple years um at a specific um capacity then you can qualify and um NICE has specific requirements but
020you can qualify to be certified in that area. Um, so I would say every year we have a few people that are like, "No, I'm interested in um, uh, coming to the um, school district um, to teach in in this capacity instead of as a professor and that may be impacted with the with the changes and the hiring frees. Um, so so I've had a few questions this year as well for people. We >> I think we might have received one or two candidates this year who are pursuing that >> transition. Yeah. Is there like active engagement that goes on to help people understand what those patterns are? >> Yes. Um and um uh so we pair with our regional certification officer um and she is magical because she will walk people through um what
021they need to do and we've hired um folks who were who come from the higher ed and are teaching now. And sometimes like this summer um one of the things we you know we'll talk about this in a minute but like the personal touch can go a long way. So actually just reaching out directly like hey I see you have an active application but you have not yet applied. If you're interested I'd be happy to talk about certification like that type of thing um can go a long way. So uh yeah we absolutely have thought about that. Any other thoughts on those like the challenges and that the land the the landscape of our challenge what we're talking about here? >> I have a like a question that relates to this one but also to
022the and because I wanted to ask you you when we had the TA you know the the teachers a teachers assistant slide up and I can't remember how many there's like 10 vacancies for one and a couple for the other and so I guess a couple questions just to start with because I I think when we talk about the challenges in our school and especially with with the role that I play with, you know, disability advocacy, I hear so often how important that ESP role is and how critical that is. And when I see that, you know, there's what was it like 190 positions, 10 vacancies, but I've also heard, you know, in my parent capacity in the schools like that when a when a ESP calls out, it's hard to have a sub there
023are no substitutes for them. And oftentimes, if there's a teacher that's absent and they have no substitute teacher, an ESP will step up to fill that position. Um, so I ask all this because I I I keep thinking about how critical the ESP role is, especially in our district and how like when we're talking about incentivizing and recruitment, how important it would be to have like an ESP to teacher pipeline and and I wonder about getting creative with that. And when you think, you know, you have a TA and what's the pay difference between a ESP and a TA and and if we've ever gotten creative thinking like how can we nurture that role to make that role look at something as a as like a stepping stone and and have we examined how that
024can really build on our schools entirely? >> Uh really good question. There's a couple of ways that we're trying to get at that. And when I say get at that, it's doesn't mean we've done it. It just needs there's some pathways to pursue. Um in our current bargaining agreement with the ESP unit, um there's uh opportun some some ways where we can help offset costs to pursue a degree. There's also a an agreement with ESP unit about a pilot program to to to sort of upskill some of these folks in specific uh in specific skills, right? Um so if you have someone who's really good at working with really specific types of students with specific like uh ch, you know, specific areas where they need support and help or looking at how to do that.
025You mean like so like ABA training or something? >> Yes, exactly. >> And just to follow just for clarity as we're talking um so if someone were to upscale that specific skill, would they like you saying that we're paying for them to be certified and that would be upscaling their pay? >> We have a pilot program where we're working with the union on how we might do that. So that's actually in the in the development pipeline. >> Okay. Um at the same time one of the the challenges that exists with that unit particularly is when we create the to the teacher pipelines and we want that is also ESPs are really terrific for a lot of our students. So there's this challenge of like they're great let's make them a teacher okay and we want
026that and if they want that for their career we everyone wants that but but then we we create a hole again. So, so there's this other piece of how do we so it's a twofold piece is we want to develop that p pipeline and I'm going to talk about potential pipeline that would absolutely be one of them people that love working with our students love being in our schools and want to be teachers and take their career career to a a new pathway but we also want to think about as we do that what about people that really just like being ESPs and how do we yeah uh you know support them in a you know a career path there because um >> you know I'm I'm hesitant to say that if you like being
027an ASP, you have to be a teacher if you want to be, you know, have a viable career. The the question really is what are the the ways that we can uh do both. >> Well, I think the I guess my concern and the reason I I mean what is the pay >> uh >> because it's it's it's low, right? Yeah, we just we just settled with the uh the ESPs um last last school year, right? >> Um >> and I want to say a TA starting probably around $20.50 and I think that >> ESP's 18 or$1850 or so. I I would have to pull up those numbers, but but so that's your baseline pay. Um and then there's uh some other um programs and compensation models for degrees um years to experience it. So
028it could that could it could change but >> but like is there and I should forgive me because I should know this but I can't retain all this information but is there a you know is there a pay raise scale? So that's that's the so that's the base. What's the max? So there's so the the the max so there's that's their starting pay raise scales or pay scale ranges. Right. Right. >> But then based on every year someone's going to get a uh get a raise based on the percentage that that unit bargain. Right. Okay. So so you could definitely there'd be there's definitely some ESP staff members who are going to make a range well above that. Um, we could do a breakdown at some point and talk. >> Yeah. I just think like
029I think you can have the most amazing ESP, but if their salary is going to be capped at $26 an hour, >> Yeah. >> there's no way you're going to retain them for a large amount of time. And I guess that's why I would love to have a breakdown until I understand that. >> Sure. >> Sorry. >> All good. Um so uh things that we've then talked about with uh who so the question next and we'll talk about teachers in this part but because I think that's one of the areas that you've been talking about a lot would you hit that again for us? >> Sure. >> Um so the question is like so who should we recruit? Each one of these when we think about it uh has different um different philosophies on like
030how to how to reach them, right? And these are the things we want to work on specifically. So I identified or we identified five groups that we tend to recruit from or could recruit from. Um the number one is our graduates from local colleges and universities, right? That's that's and oftentimes there are student teachers. Uh student teachers are actually the the sort of the ideal recruit because not only are they in our schools, but it's a great opportunity to be like to see like how is this person in our environment. Um very rarely in our interview process do we get uh as a robust look at someone's abilities. So uh that's that's a great area to start. Um, another area that we think we need to uh probably grow and expand on is how do
031we find and reach out to experienced teachers who are already in our region in surrounding districts and maybe or maybe are ready, maybe they there's things about ETHA that are appealing. Maybe they live in our district already and um they think, you know what, there's a school two minutes away. Maybe I'd like to work there now. So, uh, that's a group that, uh, you know, traditionally a lot of folks have, you know, find a district, get tenured, settle down, and stay there. The question that I would have as we think about strategies and um, planning is how how might we we what would our pitch be? How might we reach out and convince teachers in surrounding areas to say to say, "You know what? I'd like to like to go to that." And we have
032some ideas about that which I talk about in a minute. On the other piece, and this was I know Aaron stepped out, but this this could be one the mid-career career changers. I'm not sure um syntax wise that's how I should have written it, but uh but but that's what it is. Like folks that maybe were working out of college and they have a degree in literature and all a sudden they want to become they want to get involved. Um how might we reach out to th those folks? um how might we advertise to them specifically? Um that's something that's worth thinking about and that's a different type of group. Um and then we get the relocators. This is actually a bigger than I thought group. We get a good number of people who I
033think were doing some interviews this week from for people who are are like hey I want to live in Ithaca Fingerlakes region. um we get a decent number of people from New York City who decide to leave the city, come up here um and settle down. So that's that's a group that's going to need but we also get folks from Florida, Texas, California, like really all over. Um some of those are related to Cornell, but some of those are people just want to come here. And then the last piece of people to recruit as a as a separate group are that internal pipeline people who are already working and maybe want to um you know help them become certified. So uh when we think about the recruiting as it relates to teaching positions those would
034be like the five ones that I I think about first um to fill those needs. There's also some other like subgroups um when we're trying to fill needs. For example, a teacher that's dual certified and they're working in a easier to fill area. How can we convince them or you know approach them or you know get but that's they're already with us. So um think about this as though that I think is important for this group. Can you just go back this way? >> Um, so one of the things for you all to keep in mind in the work that you do, I'm looking at three and four, the mid-career changers and the relocators, especially outofstate relocators. Um, we currently, one of the things that may you may be able to help with some state
035level advocacy on is that currently the New York State teacher retirement system. It depending on what tier you are in. We have a large portion of people around my age who are tier 4 who need a who need 30 years of service to be fully vested in the pension system. There are people about 8 to 10 years younger than me who are tier six who need 40 years of service to be fully vested in the New York State pension system. And as I think about a mid-career changer or a relocator, that is a huge challenge. Like it's it's both a challenge to recruitment and then in terms of how does a school district, you know, especially like a relocator, say they came with 10 years of um experience in Florida, but they're starting a 40-year
036career. How do we pay someone? Well, now like uh other states accept uh other states accept >> credit like you can buy credit in a retirement system. Like if I went to Massachusetts, uh I might be able to get up to 10 years of service, right? New York State doesn't accept credit. So that's th those are let me go back to our challenges. Those are some challenges. Yeah. >> Yeah. So just um there is work being done especially by our union on bringing down that 40 years back to 30 and it would also be great like you know through NISBA if this comes up in your circles the challenge of the 40 years is a challenge and the lack of reciprocity is a challenge. So any work that you can do with that will help
037make those two group will help us in those two areas. >> Katherine this is the fixed tier six. >> This is the fixed tier six program. Yeah. noted and we'll follow up. >> Thank you. >> Um I was also curious and what just because I know it's been happening around the country and I think is no exception about like bringing folks back from retirement. I've noticed more and more people seem to be doing that. Do you consider that as a strategy or as a uh >> case scenario? I think that's like >> I don't know if I consider that like I guess that'd be like a short uh like a a yearby-year strategy. Um and my we were we actually did that this like every year we do that. Um I'm seeing if I can
038find Yeah, for example, this year actually it's more now. We were at five retirees that were working in SAS. I think we're at six now. I think another one joined us just recently. Um so yeah, that's definitely cool. And part of the reason that works right now is I believe the state waved um the cap an earnings cap meaning we can pay folks like a full salary but they can also get their retirement. Previously there was there was a cap which meant that you could only earn up to like 30 or 40,000 >> 35,000 >> yeah in a in a school year. So um >> yeah so there's all these like okay >> these these pieces but it's yeah good question. I'm also curious because our local education I mean Portland's education program is of
039course huge. We're now used to have an education program. Do you know if they're ever going to revisit that? >> I I I don't think they have it anymore but I don't >> I know. Yeah, they used >> Yeah. So I don't know. >> I see. >> Yeah, that's a good podcast. >> I'm just I'm just thinking about the the quantity of people who end up getting certified. I think the challenge is as we we've said already is um there's less folks metriculating into those programs. So um when we talk about a revival of a program, I think we'd have to see large scale shifts in the number of um the number of people that's that's a challenge. >> I also know like nationwide you're also seeing more um residency programs or like district certified
040programs. Is that a thing in New York or elsewhere? >> I don't think >> Sarah kids do residency programs which um >> aren't they? >> Yes. Um and I'm not sure I believe there's also um there's another school district I'm blanking on it that also did a partnership with a nearby college. Um and I've had several co conversations with um college and sne um to see one how how can we nurture that pipeline of our ESPs? Um and um and then residencies, what does that look like? How can we feasibly make it happen? Um and so that's that's one of the conversations actually on our next slide. Um, you know, one of the things to think about, um, is is those partnerships and pipelines. Um, uh, and just backing up a little, you know, with
041recruitment. Um, in the, you know, years that I've been recruiting, I think there's one thing that hasn't changed is that the the those that are going into teaching are going into teaching because they want to impact children. >> They they love it. They come with a passion. What has changed is that it is a um candidate market, right? They're looking for where's the best place for me to teach. I know that, you know, I'm I'm wanted by all of these people. Um you know, what are you offering? Um what's professional development beyond what's required? Um and what's my life going to look like? What's my life balance going to look like? Um and so that's where um we have to be visible and say Ithaca City School District is the best place to teach and
042here's why. Um it's, you know, one of the favorite parts of my job is to talk to people about the work that we're doing, why they should come here. If you're trying to leave New York City, okay, here's what we have to offer. Um if you're, you know, relocating with a partner or spouse, you know, how can we connect? um uh if you got your foot in the door as a um ESP but your dream is a teacher, okay, how can we get you there and um not make it that you're broke and you know um and then have to leave us completely to just leave education because we have seen that. Um so you know there there's we've had so many conversations on how to really make this work. Um and some of it
043comes to like yeah where's the money? How can we offer it? Um uh and then others are getting the word out in our visibility. Um we yes we're visible in I I I drive everywhere to go to recruitment fairs um but also our online presence so recently and I'll show a little um kind of excited about this rough draft of a testimonial video um >> uh can you just click on it? Yeah, >> we've been working on uh some recruitment material. >> Yes, >> the rough draft. >> So, having people here like why do people work here, right? Why do you why do you want to teach here? >> Oh, yeah. The speaker >> that >> the little No, it's the volume on the >> on the bottom right. Okay. Empas is part of part
044of some of the um the things to do to have more visibility and let people know, okay, who's it school district? I I love that idea. Um and I think that it was a really nice video. I think um I think that ICSD is such a unique district. I mean I as a parent moved here from DC. Neither of us even work in the state of New York and we moved here for this district. Um because there's some really unique things about the district that you can't find in many other places. And I think that for a lot of teachers, I would assume that it is those pieces um that are such a draw. And which is why the question for me keeps coming up and I have written down what's our like what's the
045pitch? Um because that video to me while like really nice seemed like it was like kind of to like you should be a teacher like you should work in a school like it's nice to be around kids. it's nice to, you know, have an impact. But it was it like it didn't say anything to me about the things that make like this district itself really unique and different from other districts. Um, and that's what I'm so like eager to see as like an opportunity for for folks to really like understand that it will push some people away and that's probably a good thing. And it will also bring folks who would, you know, it teaching here would not be like teaching in any of the districts around here and at most other schools. And so
046I'm really curious like how how that can like come about, how even with the like I would want everybody at IC who's like teaching the teacher prep program or at Portland to be able to voice that uniqueness. Like it makes me think about like what opportunities are there for um collaboration with ITA. Like I I think about, you know, what an amazing opportunity it was to have, you know, the negotiations publicized. And it also was like a a time period where there was a lot of time spent talking kind of hearing like negative aspects about this district and about teaching in this district. And now that hopefully soon that will be behind us, I wonder if there's like a new found opportunity for kind of collaboration with the teachers here who can also speak really
047well to what makes it so unique to be here and why, you know, there most of them are not going to surrounding districts. So, I hate to I I I'm excited about you guys thinking about these kinds of things and I just think it's like so important that we emphasize the things that really are so incredible about about the district. >> Yeah, I was going to say I love this as well. So, coming from at least in part of my career the charter school world, we are great at branding, right? Because charter schools are trying to take kids from from from neighborhood schools. And so I think like one thing that I I think is like the profile of an educator in the school district is not necessarily monolithic, right? And so I think like
048the emphasis on one school is maybe one thing I would consider. Um and also like the emphasis on interviews with two like types of personnel instructional and bus driver because I think about like you know a lot of our schools like we have elementary and middles and high like middle and high school we have like ACS which is its own special thing. we have a lot of like student performances and celebrations like >> like images from like a play or a sports. I I just but like my my overall thing would be I love the fact that we're thinking about online presence testimonial and I think that there's a lot of things we can showcase in Ithaca that with this I have a relatively one-sided view of I guess it just be my >> and
049this is just a rough draft. This is um so I'm um partnering with our video photographer and this was like hey let's put something together to give an idea um so um and I'm glad I'm I I appreciate your feedback because this is something that um is is in works to get to get that voice. Um I appreciate it. Yesterday Bever's hand, one of the teachers um you know was really um grateful for the micro credential and that's a lot of things where um that sets us apart when we talk to candidates to teachers that are looking for um uh for that right um first teaching placement for them. What am I getting out of this? Um uh what is Ithaca City School District's commitment, right? Um and so yeah, definitely hearing it in a
050in a video, right? Um um really adds to the branding and the marketing of who we are. Yes. >> You want me to share a few examples with you? >> Yeah, please do. >> So, uh as a former TV news producer, if you ever want an eye on that before having to help because I like I could I like I'm like visually edit I'm editing it in my head as I'm watching it. Like I'm like, "Oh, that could have been cut. This could have been good." I loved it. But anyway, >> um but my question is, uh >> listen, money talks, so I know that the negotiations aren't final, but you know, so much of what we heard in the negotiations is we don't get paid enough. And one of your slides, you know, said,
051you know, we'd lose teachers to other districts. So, you know, say crystal ball, do you think that if the agreement is reached and if the board were to say yes, right, do you think that will help with recruitment efforts? I mean, I don't think I would have put that as a group to recruit if I didn't think that. So, my answer is yeah, of course. Right. Um, uh, I think that's like ultimately if we're thinking about I mean this is the tricky part of the economics of our region, our state, the economy is uh, you know, we have to position ourselves to to get, you know, the workforce we want. and and part of our it kind of all merges in this conversation because there's this question of like I like what you're saying with
052like a what's our tagline, what's our pitch, right? Because we need to be able to pitch then we need need to be able to like close the deal, right? Um and then we need to be able to, you know, sustain the deal, right? Retain and we retaining our existing staff is a whole another conversation that also requires very similar thoughts and we should probably present at the next meeting about some of those thoughts. But um yeah, I think it all it all goes hand in hand and and then also from the board and this is this is the last part and we could probably jump there in a minute but it's like what are those things like what would be you know both policies and you know areas where we can kind of spark those
053uh those approaches. what are pitches and uh competencies that we want pitches we want to give and competencies we want to see in our candidates right how are we going to pair that with our recruitment efforts all of that um lives within this conversation >> well sorry >> no I was thinking I mean there might be different pitches also for different places like I I got thinking a lot about like Bingington and Courtland are just two schools that produce an enormous number of teachers that are very close and it's sort of like if If you're a Bingington student and you're graduating and you have a degree in teaching and like you don't want to go back to New York City for whatever reason, maybe because 50% of Bingington comes from state, >> it's sort of
054like how you know what what's the message there versus like what's the message? So I guess I was just thinking about you know finding out like from these different places like hey you have a lot of Anderson students you know what did what are they looking for? What do they want to see? That's a great point. And then I'd also say it also depends on the position we're recruiting, right? Like if we're recruiting a science teacher and we have these conversations, >> the science standards in New York State are changing, right? And so, uh, if you're a teacher in a district where you're the only earth science teacher in the district and you need to figure that out basically on your own, a pitch here essentially could be, hey, we have a team that's working
055on this and we're going to spend three PD days with a team of people working on that so we can do it together. Um, for a lot of people that's that can be really appealing particularly when um, you know, we're looking at a lot of changes. So there's I think to expand to my point I think what what I'm sort of saying that we need to pivot into as we think about recruiting and this is where we need to grow is not just blanket recruiting but like who are our groups I identified those five what are our subgroups what are our positions what are the pitches that to match those pieces up um and I think uh the the the criticism the very clear criticism that I would give myself and I would hear from
056anyone is that uh the sort of one-sizefits all fits all recruiting maybe is is going to have is not going to get us the results that we want. So the questions here are from this meeting and and all the conversations we have thereafter are like all right how are we how are we going to combat that? I >> I was going to say I think that like things like the marketing efforts can serve two purposes, right? One is like the sort of video we describe with like kid performances and fun stuff, but as that's something that then parents share and staff share because we love kids and they're passionate about kids. I think that just builds general positive buzz, especially in the absence of local media that really focuses on like cool things that teachers
057and kids are doing. And then there's the more targeted efforts. a question I had and um one thing I I don't see on here but I do think it matters both from personal experience like from what I've observed is like are the process and how difficult or not difficult it is for people to apply >> yeah I'm not sure if you're >> maybe I'll just jump because I'm so uh refreshed it says areas we where we can grow so we want to optimize the ICSD applicant pool which I think is exactly what you're saying or close to what you're saying, right? Like so fasttrack the hiring when pro possible that includes applications. Um we need to post our vacancies much earlier. I was in a conversation today with a principal. We have a retirement in
058math in one of our buildings for the spring. Let's post it January one, right? As anticipated. uh we just gave an offer to a technology education candidate who's graduating this school year for next year. Right? So um along those lines, I'm sorry I cut you off because I so excited about it, but those are those are the things that we're trying to say that we're trying to do. I think I like so one thing I can so I'm speaking for this as someone who's applied for a lot of jobs and like been involved in a lot of talent processes and my experience in the state school district some years ago is I just think a little bit about like service level agreements for the process as in what is the maximum amount of time from
059the time someone applies to when they hear from someone right yearwide including when people take vacations over the summer because I know that's a perpetual issue in a a lot of districts, what are the requirements for applying? Like, do we have things like >> at this point, especially with AI, I would name like unnecessary essays or like other requirements that like might make someone go, "Oh, like I don't want to like if we're not getting that because like things like that are very helpful when you have 200 applicants because it allows you to weed down to a number. But if you actually only have like 15 candidates, >> extra requirements at the front end prevent you from getting applicants in. >> And so I guess I would just I would be curious maybe in a
060future committee meeting to explore like what is our process and how can we make it for lack of a better term as simple as possible while getting a um I think you this is a quote quoting you Zach a robust understanding of people's abilities. >> Yeah. I mean that and that is the tent. We talked about this last year or two. >> Yeah. The you know the marketing and videos that's to serve like to have somebody click on I think city school district. >> Um >> then it comes to like I had this little image here. This is um uh to the right is Niagara Falls teacher recruitment day. There are hundreds of um district school districts. There's people from Texas, California, you know, all over, right? Um, and this I took a picture of
061East Aurora's world famous 15-second job application, and it's like, okay, that's what people want. 15 seconds, they applied, you know, and >> five. That's right. >> Yes. Right. Because I can I can sell them if they're going, but if they if we take too long to get back to them, they've moved on. So, you know, that is the >> Okay. Thank you. Sorry, in the interest of time, I just want to make sure that we wrap up. >> I have one more I have one more question about this. >> So, I was just thinking here with everything you you shared, something that just blar like when and and when Emily said, you know, I moved here from DC and I I think like, you know, part of why I was excited to leave the DC
062area was leaving a city. Um, and then I think and leaving the traffic and leaving the chaos. And when I think about where we're recruiting from, even when you're talking about Bingmpington, like why would someone want to leave Bingmpington to come to Ithaca when the cost of living is higher yada yada yada and and so I say all this because I wonder if we've explored and you know being a communications person if we've explored marketing using methods to do targeted marketing to teachers on like say Facebook >> right and doing it in New York City and drawing people from places where it be like oh my god I could get the heck out of here and go somewhere like that for a while. >> Yeah. No, that's been a internal conversation. Um the ability to
063do like allow me this one joke, but uh uh I remember one time I was looking up a recipe for artich chokes and and then the big artich choke found and then I got artich choke ads everywhere, right? Um so we we know we can do targeted marketing for artichokes. So I'm sorry but um but why not so why not for teachers right so like and that exists so we've had internal conversations about how would we do that and who are the partners that we could find to target um exactly those people. So yeah it's it's a it's that is something that's that we'd like like to do for sure. >> Yeah man, social media use it for good. >> Yeah. Sorry about that. >> I'm gonna use the artichoke. Um, okay. I want to
064be respectful of everybody's time. We only had an hour today. Um, it seems like like you guys set a really good foundation for helping us kind of understand what's happening now and what the needs are. I can tell even from just the questions that we all have lots of ideas. I have like a list of 15 questions that I'm not even able to ask you guys right now. I think it would be um and this is why um Zach and I decided to put the board goals piece down at the bottom is because uh as we're finding with everything, there are like a million things we would love to see or help you all do or that you would like to do. Um and a million different priorities we would all like to put at
065the very top and can't. Um and so as folks saw yesterday, we kind of talked about, you know, strategic planning and goal setting um for the entire board. Um and I think that the same interest goes for and I know that you asked me directly about what those goals were because it will help us um nail them down. So, I think that um this committee working together to kind of talk about what stood out for us and where the opportunities seem to be and then collaborating with the rest of our colleagues to make sure that um whatever goals we decide to set as a um as a board and working with um Dr. Brown on on district goals are aligned very much with this. Zach, I know that you said that like in the past
066there have been um recruitment efforts have been really like aligned with the type of candidate or the need that the um the district had expressed especially as it related to um goals and priorities. Um so this is a great time and opportunity to do that same thing since we can't help you focus on everything. Um so thank you for setting the stage for us. I think that we'll have some good opportunities to be able to talk about them as a board and then come back to maybe be able to jointly set a few priorities that we may be able to >> and support you through working on the rest of the year. >> Yeah. And uh in the slideshow there I also gave some questions along those lines of what the board >> what what
067we things I was wondering. So I think we can this slide on top of the >> Yeah, it is. Yeah, it should be good. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay.