Jefferson County board hears HR report showing hundreds of open positions, faster internal hiring times

The Jefferson County Board of Education received a staffing report July 8 showing hundreds of active job postings across the district and steps HR is taking to fill them.

Cynthia Grama, an HR staff member who presented the review, told the board the district counted 362 classroom teacher vacancies as of June 23 and that Munis showed 6,165 certified teacher positions listed as filled for the coming year. Grama said vacancy counts reflect actively posted positions — not all allocated or funded positions — and stressed the numbers are a snapshot in time.

"Positions are posted not only on that job board, but they're posted on AppleTrack," Grama said, adding that certified positions must be posted on the state job site for 15 days and classified positions a minimum of seven days. "If you take out the posting time, we were turning those around in a little over seven days." She said the average from request-to-offer during the transfer window was about 22 days, which includes the mandatory posting period.

Why it matters: board members said teacher shortages and unfilled positions affect classroom stability and asked what the board can do to help recruitment. Grama described pipelines and partnerships the district uses — including university alternative-certification programs, Louisville Teacher Residency, Teach Kentucky and a contract with staffing firm Kelly Education — and said the district is recruiting for roughly 150 classified vacancies through the agency. She also said the district is excluding bus drivers from the presented counts because that topic had been covered recently.

Details from the presentation and board discussion

- Transfer window and counting: Grama said the district's transfer window runs from March 1 to June 23, and movement during that period creates a "domino effect" of openings and fills. Vacancy numbers presented reflect positions actively posted for hire, not simply positions allocated or funded but not posted.

- Turnaround times: HR calculated an average 22-day turnaround from request to job offer during the transfer window (including the 15-day certified posting). Removing the required posting window, Grama said the internal processing and vetting portion averaged just over seven days.

- Applicant counts: Grama said the number of applications is not a reliable indicator of unique candidates because the system counts every application submission. She gave the example of one applicant applying to many openings and said the system cannot deduplicate by person for the board's report.

- Vacancies by type: besides the 362 classroom teacher vacancies, Grama gave counts for other categories: 53 "certified other" openings (assistant principals, counselors, interventionists, resource teachers), instructional assistant vacancies concentrated in early childhood education (115 ECE instructional assistants, 40 early-childhood-specific assistants after a slide correction), and about 141 bilingual associate instructor vacancies among school-based classified positions. She said operations vacancies totaled about 122 (bus drivers and SNIDA positions were omitted from the presented slides).

- Recruitment capacity and tools: HR said its recruiting staff includes an executive director of recruiting, three specialists, a coordinator (also a recruiter), an assistant coordinator and a data-management staffer. Grama said AppleTrack (Frontline) is the district's application system; HR is negotiating improvements and is considering an RFP for an applicant-tracking replacement to improve analytics and candidate experience.

- Use of staffing agencies and legal limits: Grama said the district is using Kelly Education for classified instructional-assistant placements with a plan to convert those workers to full JCPS employees after 90 days. She said state rules and teacher retirement-system (KTRS) constraints limit use of staffing agencies for certified teacher positions.

- Pipelines and partnerships: Grama described existing partnerships — Louisville Teacher Residency, Teach Kentucky, university option programs and apprenticeship/co-op discussions with University of Louisville — and said the recruiting office runs a program of conditional offers and continued outreach to student teachers and recent graduates. She said the district gives some tuition assistance for employees in alternative-certification pathways.

Board questions and concerns

Board members pressed HR on recruiting capacity, candidate experience and outreach. Board Member Everett asked whether interview timing differed for external candidates; Grama said the district combined internal and external postings this year (posting both simultaneously) after discussion with the union to speed hiring. Board Member Bass asked how many HR staff process folders; Grama replied that staffing teams consisting of a specialist, a human-resources assistant and a clerk vet folders and that the work is "all hands on deck" during peak periods.

Several board members raised candidate-experience concerns: complaints that the application process is difficult on mobile devices, that candidates do not receive timely feedback, and that applicants sometimes feel they have fallen into a "dark hole." Grama said HR emails unsuccessful applicants when another candidate is selected and that improving the online application experience is a priority.

Next steps and timeline

Grama reminded the board the numbers are a snapshot and said HR will return Sept. 2 with updated data. She also announced a districtwide job fair scheduled for the coming Friday and said HR will provide a flyer to board members.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to approve the meeting agenda: moved by Mister Bass; seconded by Mister Everett; outcome: approved ("Ayes have it").

- Motion to approve minutes of the June 24 meeting: moved by Miss Strange; seconded by Miss Lister; outcome: approved ("Ayes have it").

- Motion to approve the consent calendar: moved by Mister Everett; seconded by Miss Strange; outcome: approved ("Ayes have it"). Included in consent/administrative items were routine bid awards (see below).

- Bid awards announced under consent: Bid ID 8454, item 64 (automotive/bus repair parts and services) and item 92 (automotive/bus parts and services). Bid ID numbers were read and awards announced during the tie-bid handling; item descriptions and vendor names were discussed on the record. Detailed award documents were part of the consent packet (not reproduced in this summary).