District reports most teaching positions filled; custodial openings remain a challenge

Chris (district staffing presenter) briefed the board on the district’s start-of-school staffing status and described areas still needing hires.

Teaching positions: Chris said all regular education teaching positions have been filled. He reported two special-education openings remain: one is at the high school and described as a year-long long-term substitute position; another is a 0.5 position at Lake Elmo.

Custodial and operations: The presenter said the district’s largest remaining need is custodial staff, noting seven openings in head engineer and second engineer positions. The district is running targeted recruitment (Indeed ads, quick-apply options, a postcard campaign and coordination with bargaining groups) to generate interest.

Para and nutrition/nonschool staffing: Chris said the district had six para openings and three CIP openings (one at the high school, one at the middle school and one at Anderson). He said openings in nutrition services had largely been reduced to float positions, though a few recent resignations had occurred.

Hiring numbers and trends: The presenter said the district had hired 37 new teachers for the fall and that the number of openings was fewer than the same time last year, when the district had been closer to 15 open positions at the same point.

Board questions and context: Board members asked whether the district saw the same late-summer retirement/unemployment departures seen the previous year; Chris said the district had not seen a comparable exodus this year. Another question asked whether other districts were competing for custodians; Chris said other entities are competing for custodial candidates. The presenter said substitutes or teachers-on-call are often used as interim fills for vacancies.

Ending: The board thanked Chris for the update and did not move to any immediate policy changes during the meeting.