Weaver audit: Conroe ISD retains certified teachers at above‑average rates; recommends process and reporting tweaks to improve early‑career retention

Brandon Tanis, partner at Weaver, presented an advisory audit of Conroe ISD's recruitment, onboarding and attrition processes and said the district performs well relative to peers on certification and overall turnover but should standardize some processes to identify and address early‑career attrition.

Brandon Tanis, Partner, Weaver, told the audit committee the review covered recruitment and branding, onboarding, development and training, performance assessment and exit/attrition analysis. The audit emphasized that Conroe ISD's centralized HR work and active campus principal involvement have contributed to strong outcomes: the district exceeds statewide and peer averages on the share of certified teachers and has comparatively low overall educator turnover.

Key positives identified: - A high percentage of certified teachers (reported in the audit at roughly the low‑to‑mid 80s percent in the 2023–24 reporting period), with personnel pathways in place to move non‑certified staff toward certification. - Robust candidate pipelines fueled by in‑person and virtual career fairs and relatively fast hiring timelines: a sample showed about 62% of hires received a recommendation to hire within 30 days of application in the audit sample. - Active campus principal engagement in hiring and onboarding.

Opportunities and recommendations: - Add an interview date field to the district's HRMS (the vendor field was added during the review) to allow tracking of the full hiring timeline and identification of bottlenecks; district staff reported the field was added and that an initial data review would begin July 1. - Improve collaboration and documentation of recruiting best practices across principals; HR will develop a Canvas course for principals to share practices and resources and begin marketing it in June. - Enhance HRMS (Winocular/binocular) reporting and introduce a weekly status email for hiring managers to consolidate onboarding tasks and reduce fragmented alerts; HR planned weekly status emails starting May and summer trainings for administrators. - Provide regular KPI reporting to the board and an HR committee, including certified teacher percentages, turnover by years of service, and exit survey findings; management planned to provide enhanced reports beginning May. - Monitor salary competitiveness using TASB salary studies and district budgeting; audit noted Conroe ranked near the middle of local peers on average pay and identified targeted increases as a tool to address specific experience tiers if funding permits.

On attrition, Weaver found higher turnover concentrated in the 0–5 year group, a common statewide pattern. Exit survey reasons included taking positions with other districts (about 11% in the exit survey sample), relocation (about 10%), career change and retirement for long‑tenured staff. Weaver recommended more granular exit data collection to distinguish local moves from out‑of‑area moves and to inform targeted retention strategies.

Management responses were generally affirmative; HR staff (identified in the meeting as Miss Green and Miss Boone) and district leadership agreed to implement the recommendations on timelines described in the audit report. No formal board action was required at the meeting.