MMSD reports steep drop in teacher vacancies, outlines multi‑year recruitment and retention plan

Human resources staff for the Madison Metropolitan School District on Wednesday told the Operations Support Group the district has substantially reduced teacher vacancies and is moving to a multiyear strategy to sustain hiring and retention gains.

District presenters said the fall staffing snapshot shows fewer than 30 school‑level vacancies districtwide at the start of the 2025–26 year, down roughly 72% from two years earlier. Jennifer (HR presenter) told the board the district has “over 800 subs this year who are taking assignments for us, and we are achieving an average of a 90% fill rate.” Staffing manager John Zalowski described an expanded push into regional career fairs and “grow your own” programs to build internal pipelines of future teachers and school leaders.

District officials said the data show improvement across school levels. Jennifer and colleagues presented downward vacancy trends for elementary, middle and high school teachers compared with the past three school‑year starts, and reported better substitute fill rates and lower overall separations for the 07/01/2024–06/30/2025 period. The district also reported custodial vacancies at 2 (and…