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Wakefield HR reports roughly 96% of positions filled; district switches to Red Rover for absence and substitute tracking
Summary
Human resources reported near‑full staffing, a large applicant pool for some positions, and a recent technology switch from Frontline to Red Rover designed to streamline substitutes, accruals and FMLA tracking.
Wakefield School Committee — Human Resources provided an update on staffing and a new absence/tracking system during the committee’s Aug. 12 meeting.
Joe Balandra, who presented the HR update, said the district had “very few teacher positions open” and that “about 96% of our positions are filled at this time.” He told the committee some openings were spread across schools and included a mix of cafeteria, custodian, teacher and paraprofessional posts. He also said specialized openings, such as an IT posting, drew strong interest — the IT posting attracted nearly 50 applicants.
Balandra described the district’s recent migration from the Frontline system to Red Rover for accruals, absence reporting and substitute management. He said the district exported payroll data from Munis to populate Red Rover and that a small number of staff had email mismatches that required correction during setup. He said the switch was intended to reduce manual payroll work: substitutes will accept jobs in Red Rover and the district will pull verified substitute attendance into payroll instead of relying on paper timesheets or Google Forms.
On leave tracking, Balandra said Red Rover flags multi‑day absences and creates workflow notices for potential FMLA eligibility. He said the district began pilot testing in May with around 25–30 employees and expects the system to save time in payroll processing and improve tracking of long‑term leaves.
Committee members asked about internal posting rules and late‑summer internal transfers. Administrators said district policy requires a five‑day internal posting window before external posting, but principals can ask for shorter windows close to the start of school to fill urgent vacancies. HR said late movement among staff typically affects fewer than 10 people in August and that long‑term substitute needs each year typically range from 15 to 30 people going out on leave.
HR staff also confirmed that all open positions are posted on SchoolSpring and the district website and that internal email notices go to current staff when positions are posted.
