Tabitha Whittingham, the Shelton School District human resources lead, gave the board a recruiting and personnel report outlining several staffing metrics and new hiring practices. "We've increased recruitment efforts...Moving to Red Rover has allowed us to reach out to candidates," Whittingham said, describing a move to a quicker online hiring platform and use of asynchronous interviews.
Whittingham presented data showing the district's certificated staff average about 13.9 years of teaching experience, above the reference average of 12 years, and that teachers in the district average roughly 9.24 years in-district versus a national average of 8.2 years. She said certificated retention at Shelton over the past decade is about 88%, compared with a 86% figure cited for Washington Title I schools.
She explained that some resignations shown on personnel reports are for temporary or supplemental roles (coaching stipends, substitute assignments) and not always full separations from the district; she estimated about 25% of resignations this year fall into those categories. On a question about total employees, Whittingham said the district has "over 600 employees." She also said that this year is an outlier for separations because of the budget deficit and that some provisional staff were non-renewed as part of reductions.
Whittingham described evaluation and separation processes: nonrenewals follow a multi-year evaluation process that is "statutorily driven," provisional staff can have up to three years to reach satisfactory performance, and the district sometimes allows staff to "resign in lieu of" a termination or nonrenewal to preserve future employment prospects. She recommended "stay interviews" rather than exit surveys to learn why high performers remain.
Whittingham said gaps persist in specialized staffing — special education, multilingual staff, school psychologists and related specialists — and that those roles are often filled through contracts when candidates are scarce. No formal personnel actions were taken at the meeting beyond consent approval of routine items.