School Committee looks for improvements in recruiting - and retaining - teachers and staff

WORCESTER — The school sytem has retained about 79.9%, or 1,620 teachers, out of the 2,027 that worked in the district this year, district administrators said at Thursday’s School Committee meeting.

In a discussion about teacher recruitment and retention, administrators shared details about how the district will address the staffing needs of schools throughout the city.

Chief People Officer Yeu Kue said the district is below the state’s average retention rate this year, 84.6%.

When asked if the district looked into the reason for the difference between the state and city by School Committee member Sue Mailman, Kue said it was hard to pinpoint.

“There's a lot of factors around it, but I can't exactly pinpoint one factor,” Kue said.

There are more teachers this year than there have been since 2020, she said. In 2020, the district had 1,924 teachers, 1,962 in 2021 and 1,918 in 2022.

In 2020 and 2021, the district’s retention rate was also lower compared with the state average. But in 2022, the district saw an 88.9% retention compared with the state's 86.8%.

The district’s current goal is to increase the retention rate to between 80% and 85%, Kue said. Mailman said it should be aiming for higher rates.

Exit interviews

Kue said the ultimate goal is to get as close to 100% retention rate as possible eventually. One way the district will address staff departures is through exit interviews, the first time the district has done them, she said.

“We know that one of the reasons why, in particular teachers of color, will often leave a district is because it isn’t actually a place that is well-supported in terms of their particular career path,” said School Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick

Administrators shared staff and student demographics data during the meeting. During the 2022-23 school year, 82.1% of the staff was white, while 26.9% of the student body was white. The majority of the student body, the data said, is Hispanic at 45.8%, while 11.7% of staff is the same.

The data also showed that 4.2% of the staff and 16.7% of students are African American, 1.4% of staff and 6.2% of students are Asian, and .08% of staff and .2% are Native American.

The percentage of non-white teachers has remained about the same compared with the 2020-2021 and 2021-22 school years, according to the data shown during the meeting.

In terms of gender, a majority of the student body in the 2022-23 school year was male, at 51.4%, while the majority of staff were female at 79.8%. The percentages, like ethnicity, remained about the same compared with the past two school years shown in the data during the meeting.

'Double our efforts'

“What the data is sharing with us is that we just have to make sure that we double our efforts in making sure that there’s representation amongst our staff for our students,” Kue said.

Kue, along with Chief Diversity Officer Ivonne Perez and Director of Recruitment and Cultivation AiCo Abercrombie gave an overview of how the district is going to use the data presented, as well as feedback received from staff and the community about how to address the staffing issues and needs.

One way, they said, was through partnerships with colleges and universities in the area, particularly Worcester State University.

The district has had success with hiring Worcester State student-teachers upon graduation after they had interned at schools in the district. They are working on developing a pipeline for school psychologists and counselors.

Administrators are working with the university to develop online courses for teachers that would allow them to get additional professional development and education that accommodates their work schedule.

Abercrombie said the district also wants to establish internal pipelines to help direct people toward career paths they may desire.

Administrators have spoken with paraeducators in the past who have expressed interest in becoming substitute or full-time classroom teachers, but weren’t sure if it was possible. The district wants to make that a possibility, she said.

“When we talked about retention, we are working to strengthen our mentoring and induction programs to provide support for our new staff, as well as enlist and train new mentors,” Perez said.

Perez said they have also worked with the multilingual and special education departments on building pathways for educators who want to become an ESL or special education teacher, and getting them the credentials they need to teach more easily.

But those credentials can often create barriers for educators, such as licensure requirements. Abercrombie said the district is looking to work with the the Department of Elementary and Secondary education to allow teachers get their professional license more easily.

Currently, if a teacher wants to get their professional licensure, they have to get their initial licensure first and go back to school to finish an education track. But the district would like to advocate that educators instead be allowed to go from a provisional licensure directly into a professional licensure.

O’Connell Novick made a motion to petition the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education about the issue, and the motion passed unanimously.

Bus drivers

In terms of recruitment and training, which the district is also looking to address, O’Connell Novick recommended administrators look more closely into the transportation department, which she said has developed employees the most quickly in the district with the hiring of new bus drivers this year.

“I do think that there’s probably some models that we can take from that, there’s some lessons learned that we can take from that,” she said. “It’s a multilingual facility, it’s a facility that has made provision for parents, it’s a facility that continues to build on people’s skills … in a way that works in your work schedule.”

But it’s not just teachers the district wants to hire. The administrators said they also want more para-educators, custodians, nurses, and other positions, and they want the talent to come from the community, as well as from the public school district directly.

Abercrombie said she has been working with high school seniors in a para-educator preparation program so they are able to work with students, particularly in early childhood.

Member Jermoh Kamara, who said she was excited about the programs, made a motion for the district to share data about the number of students participating in the program with the committee. The motion passed unanimously.

The district will also look at the wages and benefits and make them more competitive and appealing to recruit and retain educators to the district.

Special recognition

Members of the committee also voted unanimously to approve awarding 102-year-old Ginger Rinaldi, who formerly worked in Worcester Public Schools, an honorary high school diploma.

Neither Rinaldi, nor her son Joseph, who filed the initial petition, were present at the meeting.

The South High Community School girls' basketball team also received recognition, and a certificate, at the beginning of the meeting for their regular season and postseason success after accumulating a 22-1 record.

Bryan Bascones, a sophomore who was named MVP and Inter-High All-Star, said she appreciated the recognition and that she felt it validated the work they put in during both the regular season and off season.

Naima Bleou and Jaiyla Colon, both juniors, said they were both grateful that the School Committee honored them, and helped celebrate a successful season.

“It didn’t end how we wanted, but we will work hard for next season,” Bleou said.

Coach Diago McClain, who has been leading the team the last two years, said he was grateful for that the program and the girls were being recognized, and also noted that the team was averaging a 3.9 GPA overall, the third year straight they accomplished that, he said.

“It's good to see South High girls' basketball back on the map and people advocating for the girls in the city,” McClain said. “Getting recognized by local colleges and getting scholarships. I’m proud of all of that.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester School Committee looks for improvements in recruiting staff