Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the K 12 Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
UCPS committee advances strategic staffing proposal for Monroe Middle School to full board
Summary
The curriculum committee voted to send a two-year, performance-based staffing incentive and recruitment plan for Monroe Middle School to the full board; the proposal targets eight eighth-grade teachers with EVOS-based performance pay and a May 1 recruiting deadline.
Union County Public Schools presented a strategic staffing proposal for Monroe Middle School on March 5 and the curriculum committee voted to send the item to the full board as a standalone presentation.
Dr. Houlihan said Monroe Middle School has been identified by the state as persistently low performing and the school has experienced high staff turnover, “about a 35 turnover rate at Monroe Middle,” she said. The district proposed a targeted recruitment and retention package focused on eighth-grade core teachers because eighth grade requires end-of-grade assessments in English language arts, math and science.
Staff described the plan to identify eight highly effective eighth-grade teachers using EVOS data, an internal student-growth metric. The recruitment package is a two-year commitment with four installments of $7,500 each: $7,500 at the start of year one, another $7,500 at the end of year one (total $15,000 for year one), $7,500 at the start of year two, and a final $7,500 at the end of year two contingent on the teacher meeting or exceeding growth for their Monroe Middle School students in the EVOS system. Presenters said external candidates who can provide EVOS data will be eligible, and internal Monroe teachers may apply and be vetted through a standard HR process.
The district presented a timeline that labels year one as the recruitment year and year two as the retention year, with a May 1 application deadline to fill positions for the 2025–26 school year. Presenters said roughly three-quarters of the proposal focuses on recruitment and retention and one-quarter focuses on performance.
Committee members asked about the causes of turnover; staff said resignation forms provide general categories and that teachers typically leave by transferring within the district, leaving the district, or exiting the profession. Committee members discussed cultural fit and the importance of community engagement at Monroe; Reverend Kirkpatrick requested that the full-board presentation be standalone so community leaders could attend. Funding for the incentive package will come from a reallocation of federal restart funds currently used for other interventions at Monroe, staff said.
The committee voted to send the strategic staffing proposal to the full board as a standalone item for consideration. The motion passed 4–0.
