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 noted 11 custodial FTEs approved in the current budget have been posted and filled).

Why it matters: the board said stable staffing improves classroom continuity and instruction. Several board members praised the staffing numbers and pressed HR for more detail about demographics, pay compression and leadership retention. Board member Sarah Muldrow said the hiring progress “means a lot to me to see us really recover from the pandemic,” and asked whether “less than 10 years” of experience referred to time with MMSD (HR confirmed it did).

Plans and outstanding questions

The HR team framed its work as a three‑year strategy with four main goals: strengthen the talent pipeline; foster a service culture so principals and hiring managers rely on HR expertise; streamline and modernize hiring processes; and implement effective retention strategies. Specific tactics described included increased recruiting at UW campuses and regional fairs, more visibility on job boards and LinkedIn, one‑on‑one application help for candidates, and analytic work on exit surveys and licensing compliance.

The board pressed for clarity on several lingering issues. Members asked for: - A timeline and analysis of salary compression; staff said initial historical work points to compression beginning around 2017–2018 and that remediation proposals are being developed for the 2026–27 budget cycle. - More detailed demographic breakdowns tied to Grow Your Own pipelines; HR said raw counts of staff of color did not decline and in some raw counts rose, though percentage increases were small, and that more detailed data would be provided in a followup board update. - Targeted supports for hard‑to‑fill areas including dual‑language (DLI) and special education, where the district reported continued churn and dependence in some schools on teachers working under visa or temporary authorizations. - Better “stay” data gathered through interviews to identify early warning signs of teacher departures and to assess building‑level leadership and climate prior to exits. HR said it plans to expand stay interviews and to integrate climate and culture surveys into an early‑warning approach.

Principals and leadership pipeline

Board members noted principal stability as an important retention lever. The district said 94% of principals remained in the same position as in the prior year, a rate HR described as unusually high. Panelists said the district is developing a principal pipeline in partnership with local universities and that a cohort‑based leadership development program (non‑pedagogical leadership competencies such as feedback, critical conversations and staff development) is planned for later phases of the strategy.

What did and did not change

The HR presenters did not propose or adopt any immediate pay changes at the meeting; they said compression analysis, market comparisons and budgetary feasibility work are ongoing and that the district will return with specific options. Board members asked for better breakdowns of separations (retirements versus other departures) and for regular updates on licensing and special education caseload supports.

Ending

District HR told the board it will return with more granular demographic, compensation and exit/retention analyses and said recruitment activity will continue across campus career fairs, community events and district hiring efforts. The board praised the staffing improvements and asked staff to prioritize clarity on compression timelines and supports for hard‑to‑fill roles.