Westborough reports robust summer hiring, 93% teacher retention ahead of school year

Tammy Costello, director of human resources for Westborough Public Schools, on the district's recent hiring season and retention numbers during the committee's meeting.

Tammy Costello, Westborough Public Schools' director of human resources, told the school committee that the district began its hiring season a month earlier than usual and filled the bulk of its professional positions for the year. "We hired almost 42 people," she said while summarizing classroom hires, and later reported overall summer hiring totals that include non-classroom roles.

Costello said the district recruited 76.6 permanent or temporary school-year staff and 47 summer-program staff and that 123 people separated from the district over the summer (separations meaning departures, not terminations). She said teacher headcount decreased from about 424 last year to about 417 this year — roughly seven fewer positions — and that the district's retention rate was about 93%.

Costello described a high level of internal movement: 12 internal transfers and several staff who moved between schools to meet needs. She said three schools — the high school, Gibbons and Fales — transferred staff to schools with greater needs and that the district filled 32 long-term substitute and support positions over the summer.

Committee members asked for more detail on specific schools and hard-to-fill roles. Costello said Hastings hired a high number of paraeducators over the summer because of turnover and the student population there, and she described special education and world-language positions (particularly Spanish) as difficult to fill this year. She also reported hiring four educators of color among roughly 20 new-to-district teachers this season.

Costello said only a few openings remained at the time of the meeting — a long-term substitute Spanish teacher at the high school, two paraeducator openings at Armstrong and one custodian opening at Fales — and that principals and HR were continuing recruitment and onboarding work.

Committee members thanked Costello and asked that HR continue to track supply-and-demand issues for paraeducators, special-education teachers and world-language instructors; Costello said the district is supporting paraeducators who want to pursue licensure and is using internal pipelines where possible.

Less-critical details: Costello credited the business office, technology, student services and custodial teams with enabling a strong opening and noted that community-education programs hired 14 staff for before- and after-school programs. She said one long-term hiring goal is to grow a more diverse applicant pool over time and cited transportation and housing costs as limiting factors for attracting candidates.