Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Workforce And Hr topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Manassas City highlights highest recent teacher retention, launches licensure dashboard and expands professional learning
Summary
Human resources told the school board the district’s teacher retention rose to 86% for 2024–25, with three classroom vacancies remaining; the division described new supports including a licensure dashboard for administrators, expanded coaching, New Administrator and New Teacher academies, TEAM mentoring and a Jump Start for new teachers.
Human resources and professional learning leaders told the Manassas City School Board that the district’s teacher retention rate for 2024–25 rose to 86 percent and outlined new tools and programs intended to support recruitment, licensure and teacher development.
Katie Fisher, executive director of human resources, reported that the 86 percent figure represents classroom teachers who remained in Manassas City Public Schools compared with the 2024–25 school year; the figure excludes retirements and terminations. Fisher said the division had nearly filled classroom vacancies over the summer and entered the current school year with three remaining classroom vacancies, staffed by long-term or permanent substitutes while administrators continue active recruitment.
Fisher said the HR office expedited hiring by prescreening applicants, performing reference checks and attending targeted recruiting events (including a job fair for military spouses in Quantico). To help administrators track staff licensure progress, HR is finalizing a dashboard for principals that will show each teacher’s progress toward licensure requirements.
Professional learning: structures and participation Erica Loesch, director of professional learning, described the division’s expanded induction and training: New Administrator Academy (a three-day induction with monthly follow-ups), New Teacher Academy (a four-day event for new hires), the TEAM mentoring program, and Jump Start events for teachers entering the profession. Loesch reported that 113 new teachers attended New Teacher Academy and roughly 70 new teachers were invited to Jump Start, with 59 participating in the first Jump Start session.
Other supports include an annual leadership retreat, content-focused CLT (collaborative learning team) cycles, cooperative-learning (Kagan) workshops, co-teaching development, and at least 15 hours of teacher-directed time embedded at the start of the year. The division has also integrated special-education coaching into the professional learning team to better support teachers delivering specialized instruction.
Public comment related to staff scheduling During public comment Anna DeMaria, president of the Manassas Education Association, requested that Nov. 4 — a professional development day that falls on Election Day — be designated an asynchronous work-from-home day for staff so employees can access voting and avoid safety concerns tied to high-volume polling locations. Fisher acknowledged the request and noted HR would consider staff concerns within the parameters of district operations.
Board follow-up and clarifications Board members asked for disaggregated retention data by school, details about the “stay interview” process cited as a retention tool, and how HR will track evaluation and goal-setting completion (the division uses the TalentEd performance platform for documentation and reporting). Staff committed to continued stay interviews and to providing school-level breakdowns on retention and vacancy status.
Ending: District leaders said recruitment and retention remain priorities and described a continued push to align professional learning with the strategic plan and to accelerate licensure supports for staff.
