Lisa Nobles, the district's human resources representative, presented the annual human resources update to the Ball Chatham Unit 5 Board of Education, giving a staffing snapshot and explaining recruitment and retention efforts.

Nobles told the board the district had 330 certified employees, 312 educational support professionals (ESP) and 34 administrators as of the last student-attendance day. During the 2024-25 school year the district welcomed 94 new hires across all positions and received 985 individual applicants. Nobles said the district's turnover rate stands at about 13%, just under the 2024 Illinois state average of 14% that she cited.

Nobles described recruitment channels and results: the district attended six targeted education job fairs (including events at Eastern Illinois University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University and the University of Illinois Springfield) and counted 29 direct applications from those events. She said social-media efforts and communications generated 252 applications, while employee referrals, job boards and the district career site produced large application totals (employee referrals: 815; job boards: about 1,400; district career site: nearly 1,300). Nobles clarified these figures reflect total application submissions and that the 985 number is the count of individual applicants.

She said exit surveys show strong workplace sentiment, with 85% of respondents indicating they would recommend Ball Chatham to a friend. Nobles identified the most frequent reported reasons for leaving as family-related changes, retirement and compensation concerns; she said about 63% of resignations were tied to life changes outside the district's control and that the district plans to focus on the remaining 37% of departures that might be addressable.

On current hiring, Nobles said the district had recently welcomed 25 new certified staff, 22 new ESPs and three new administrators for the coming year. She reported only one certified vacancy remains open and approximately 22 ESP positions vacant at the time of the report (she noted this number had shifted in the days before the meeting). Nobles also described scheduled new-hire onboarding dates in July and August and said ESP vacancies are typical this season due to many ESP roles being hourly or nine-month positions.

Board members asked questions about summer hiring and recruiting effectiveness; Nobles said online channels and direct university partnerships have produced better-targeted candidates than general job fairs.