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Human resources outlines recruitment push: job fairs, Grow‑Your‑Own, Handshake outreach
Summary
District 196's human resources director described recruitment and retention efforts on March 10, including job fairs, targeted paraprofessional outreach, Grow Your Own and Work‑and‑Learn pathways, and new Handshake campaigns to increase applicant pools.
Shelly Munson, District 196 director of human resources, briefed the board on March 10 about recruitment, hiring and retention strategies as the district prepares staffing for the 2025–26 school year.
Munson said District 196 employs roughly 4,300 staff overall, including about 2,300 teachers and about 705 paraprofessionals. She described recent outreach experiments the district has used to recruit support staff: an in‑person August job fair (about 126 attendees), a paraprofessional job fair in the fall, printed and digital outreach, and targeted community events. The district also provided interpreting services and on‑site application assistance at fairs to lower barriers for applicants.
Munson highlighted two internal pipelines for building staff capacity: the Grow Your Own program (supporting employees to earn bachelor’s degrees with cohort partnerships with local universities; 22 participants noted) and a Work‑and‑Learn pathway with the University of St. Thomas that permits paraprofessionals who already have bachelor’s degrees to pursue a Master’s and licensure while continuing to work (12 enrolled; 14 completers reported historically).
She said the district is recruiting earlier for next year, intentionally posting many special education positions early because about 40% of current postings are for special education roles. Munson also discussed new use of Handshake (a university job platform) to reach more candidates, including historically Black colleges and universities, and noted communications staff produced recruitment videos to share candidate stories.
Board members asked about capacity and retention; Munson said most positions are filled for the current school year but midyear special education openings remain the most difficult to cover. She described plans to expand onboarding, in‑person induction and exit interviews to collect retention data and to standardize hiring best practices. Board members and Munson discussed stay interviews and confirmed special education leadership has used those conversations to gather actionable feedback.
The presentation was informational; no action was required.
