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AISD details staffing vacancies and first‑10‑day student counts; administration outlines hiring and recruitment efforts
Summary
Chiefs reported district vacancies for teachers and teacher assistants, shared a mismatch between SIS enrollment and physical first‑day counts and described recruitment steps including job fairs, rehiring retirees under ESSER funds and emergency permits; trustees asked for more timely campus‑level vacancy reports and improved recruiting outreach.
The administration told trustees the district had filled many positions but still faced multiple classroom vacancies at the start of the year and a mismatch between projected enrollment and physical counts taken on campuses.
Chief Stevens, reporting on human capital and first‑10‑day processes, said the district budget was built on a projected enrollment of about 74,713 students but the live software roll and the daily physical counts produced different numbers during the opening week. Staff reported the student information system showed roughly 74,482 enrolled on startup while daily campus physical counts reported an initial figure of approximately 65,667 for a particular snapshot day; Stevens described reasons for the difference, including paperwork turnaround for transfers and pre‑K application processing.
On staffing, the administration said the district had dozens of teacher vacancies and a larger number of teacher‑assistant openings, with special‑education roles among the hardest to fill. “We currently have 160 teacher vacancies,” the human‑capital official said, and the district reported multiple teacher‑assistant shortages in special education and PE. The administration said it is using substitutes while processing hires and has hundreds of applicants in process.
Recruitment and interim staffing strategies described to trustees included job fairs with principals asked to attend and retweet recruitment posts, rehiring retired teachers for full‑rehire or mentor roles (funded using ESSER for salary with local funds for surcharge), emergency one‑year teaching permits for candidates with bachelor’s degrees and cohort‑based training for new hires, and targeted outreach at community events. Administration staff also said principals had a 10‑day leveling window, after which they would take a hard look at master schedules and shift staffing as needed across nearby campuses.
Trustees asked for more precise campus vacancy lists, asked how the district would avoid disproportionate vacancies at Title I campuses and asked for clearer family communications when a campus lacks a certified teacher for a class. The administration said it would produce an updated contingency‑planning spreadsheet and communicate vacancy and leveling outcomes to trustees after the first 10 days when rosters stabilize.
Ending: Trustees urged stronger recruiting and community outreach, asked the district to automate and improve hiring workflows and requested weekly updates on vacancy resolution and the outcome of the leveling process. No board vote was taken on the staffing report.
