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Board approves OE 6 monitoring report after discussion of staff diversity data and recruitment strategies
Summary
The board approved the OE 6 Personnel Administration monitoring report after a presentation on staff diversity and recruiting challenges; administrators said applicant pools have increased but staff-of-color representation remains far below student demographics.
The Eau Claire Area School District Board of Education approved its OE 6 Personnel Administration monitoring report Wednesday after a staff presentation and board discussion on racial and other workforce diversity, applicant quality, and recruitment strategies.
Executive Director Michelle Golden led the presentation and flagged Indicator 4: candidate and staff diversity. Golden said applicant numbers for educators identifying as people of color have increased during the last few years but still fall well short of reflecting the student population. She cautioned that applicant-tracking data include multiple applications from the same person, global "spam" applications, and a "prefer not to say" response option that had not been consistently handled in past reports.
Golden described a data-cleaning effort and new standard operating procedures intended to make September 2026 data more comparable. She said the district's baseline staff-of-color percentage was 4.63% and rose to 5.29% in the FTE-based chart presented to the board — figures she said are far below the student person-of-color share (about 28% for 2024–25 in the presentation).
Golden also described regional recruitment limits: she cited CESA 10 (the district's service area) as having about 2.5% licensed teachers of color — a structural constraint the HR team said it must address by widening recruiting channels. She listed proposed actions: place the district's diversity statement prominently on job postings, partner with Diversity in Ed and other DEI-focused job boards, broaden recruitment channels, and train hiring teams. The presentation also recommended tracking indicator 4 visibly during hiring decisions.
Board members asked for more clarity on survey design and on what happens to diverse applicants after they apply. Commissioner Tao asked whether applicants are converted into interviews or if candidates decline offers; Golden replied the applicant figure includes people who would not meet minimum qualifications and that the district needs better screening and anti-spam tools in WeCan (the applicant-tracking system).
Several board members raised concerns about recent changes to the staff climate survey instrument (removal of a "don't know" option) and asked for rationale and documentation about survey-item changes. Board members also stressed building-level ownership of staff climate results and asked HR to ensure the data are meaningful for building leadership teams.
The board voted to approve OE 6 after the discussion. The approved monitoring packet will inform HR's action plan for recruitment and retention; Golden said HR will work with the district's DEI director to refine outreach and report progress when September 2026 data are available.
Ending: The board approved OE 6 and directed HR to pursue the recruitment and reporting steps discussed; no staff layoffs or policy changes were decided at the meeting.
