Marion County schools outline recruitment, retention push under Achieve 2026 Goal 3

Marion County School District human resources leaders on Sept. 18 presented updates on Achieve 2026 Goal 3 — talent management — showing targets and new programs aimed at increasing certified in-field teachers and raising retention across district staff.

The presentation, led by Wontanesha Morant, executive director of human resources, and Melissa Connor, executive director of K–12 academics, outlined outcome metrics the district will use through 2026 and new recruiting, marketing and professional-learning initiatives to reach them.

Why it matters: District officials said teacher effectiveness and staffing stability are central to student outcomes, and they submitted specific percentage targets and operational steps aimed at making Marion County Public Schools more competitive in hiring and retention.

Key targets and strategies - Certification: The district said its baseline for in-field certified classroom teachers is 92% and set a target of 97% by 2026; staff described increased guidance, pathways and partnerships with the College of Central Florida and CareerSource to help out-of-field teachers become certified. - Retention: Human resources reported a 2021 baseline retention rate of 89% for instructional personnel and set a 94% target by 2026. The district also reported a baseline retention rate of 88% for all staff and seeks to raise that to 94%. - ESE vacancies: Human resources said it used end-of-2024–25 data for one metric and reported an increase in ESE self-contained instructional vacancies to about 13% (the team said they expect improved results after the district’s October FTE survey). - Grow-your-own: The district described pipeline work including high school career fairs, a future educator academy, and scholarships through a CareerSource collaboration; staff said roughly 200 current teachers were enrolled at the College of Central Florida on a pathway from temporary to professional certification. - Professional learning: The professional leadership and learning team said employees earned more than 150,000 points on the district’s Canvas professional-learning platform last year and described domain-based standards and induction supports for novice teachers.

Recruiting and marketing - Events and outreach: HR reported a mix of in-person and virtual hiring fairs (examples on Feb. 28 and March 28) and a large in-person fair on March 17 that drew about 150 attendees. Staff said the district has “well surpassed” an application goal of 27,000 applicants for the year and noted that almost 70% of applicants who answered the question “How did you hear about us?” cited career fairs, social media and job boards. - New materials and programs: HR unveiled refreshed recruitment kits, yard signs, a new employee perks page on the district website and a staff-appreciation program called Mission Possible. HR said it will pilot local “Chat and Chew” outreach events and has refreshed collateral under the theme “It starts and ends with students in Marion County Public Schools.”

Hiring operations and substitutes - Onboarding timeline: The employment services division reported the typical onboarding timeline from recommendation for hire to onboarding completion is about 7–10 days, depending on session scheduling, certification review, drug testing and related steps. - Substitute services: The district described the January 2024 partnership with ESS (Education Staffing Solutions). For the 2024–25 school year the ESS fill rate was reported as 87% covering 44,065 substitute requests (a 4% increase over 2023–24) and an average daily request of about 250; district officials said ESS now provides a three-person on-site team and an in-field team that visits schools daily. - Hard-to-fill strategy: Employment services said the district has instituted a hard-to-fill pay strategy at 10 schools to increase fill rates.

Background checks and credentialing - Clearinghouse transition: The district said it is transitioning to the Florida Clearinghouse — managed by the Agency for Healthcare Administration — for level-2 background screening and purchased three live-scan fingerprint machines. Staff said they had screened nearly all employees in the group requiring rescreening by the prior deadline and intend to screen the remaining roughly 5,000 employees during the school year.

Board and member questions Board members asked about better breakdowns of substitute reasons and about marketing Marion County as a whole to out-of-state candidates. HR said ESS tracks reasons (vacancies, field trips, TDEs) and agreed to expand categories to better distinguish planned professional activities from unscheduled absences, and staff said they will share a more detailed day-of-week and reason breakdown after the meeting.

What’s next District leaders said they will continue monthly and event-based recruiting, expand digital registration for career events, pilot Phase 2 of an electronic unit-request form using Skyward, and continue automating exit and new-hire surveys to shorten response times.

Ending: Board members praised the HR team’s improvements in onboarding, recruitment and substitute staffing and asked for follow-up data on substitutes and on how promotional outreach markets Marion County as a place to live as well as work.