Kennewick School District presents new staff-retention methodology, posts 95.3% retention for 2023-24

Kennewick School District officials on Tuesday presented the districtannual human-resources report, including a new methodology for measuring teacher retention, a retention target, and new workforce-development programs aimed at easing shortages in special education and improving early-career support.

Human Resources director Tom (presented as Tom in the meeting) said the district has adopted a cohort-based method that distinguishes "stayers" (teachers who remain in the same building), "movers" (teachers who remain in the district but change buildings) and "leavers" (teachers who leave the district). The district reported a 95.3% overall retention rate for 2023-24 and said it has set a 90% threshold for a "healthy functional retention rate." The presentation used data from prior cohorts (beginning with hires in 2019-20) to show where turnover clustered by year.

The HR report included staffing and credential snapshots drawn from the OSPI report card for 2023-24: the district reported more than 1,100 teachers with an average experience of 13.2 years; 72.4% of teachers held a master's degree in 2023-24; and about 11.1% were board-certified. Officials also said the district's $328 million budget allocates roughly 85% of expenditures to staffing.

Tom described recruitment and retention strategies now underway: regional and state job fairs, targeted recruitment for hard-to-fill positions (special education among them), an existing Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program with three consulting peer educators to mentor first- and second-year teachers, and a new Washington Education Association apprenticeship/residency partnership (WEA ART) aimed at helping classified staff with bachelor's degrees become certificated teachers. The WEA program is described as a two-year residency with rotations, a seven-week summer component and a pathway to certification and district employment.

To improve evaluation and data-driven supports, the district will implement a web-based evaluation platform (Pivot from 5Star Technologies) in 2025-26 to record observations and feedback and allow administrators to analyze trends across buildings and cohorts. HR leaders said the change keeps the district's existing evaluation frameworks (Danielson for teachers; principal and central-office frameworks) but shifts to electronic collection and analytics.

Staff-survey results were discussed as part of the report. HR said 1,311 staff responded to the spring 2024 survey. Districtwide agreement was high on the statement "I believe every student regardless of their background and life circumstances is capable of success," but some items showed lower agreement: roughly 30% of instructional staff disagreed with statements such as "My school has high expectations for student behavior" and "Students at my school respect adults," and the board asked for school-by-school disaggregation to guide targeted interventions.

Why this matters: Staffing is the district's largest operating expense and teacher shortages in special education and some other areas create operational strain. The new retention methodology and electronic evaluation tool are intended to surface problem spots earlier and to inform recruitment and retention strategies.

What the board directed: The board did not vote on new HR policy at the meeting. HR leaders said they will continue to refine retention calculations, provide school-level survey data to principals and the board on request, roll out the Pivot evaluation tool with summer training, and start the first WEA apprenticeship cohort in the coming year.

Provenance: The HR presentation and discussion began at the HR report item and continued through the district's PAR, WEA ART and Pivot descriptions, and concluded with board questions on survey disaggregation and retention metrics.