Superintendent Dr. Hauswald used his required leadership-standards presentation to describe Boone County Schools’ approach to human-resources leadership: recruiting and retaining a diverse, high-performing staff; providing induction and mentoring; planning professional development; and evaluating staff and systems.

He said the district is emphasizing distributed leadership, more frequent two-way communication with principals and stronger processes for hiring, induction and career advancement, including “grow your own” efforts for paraprofessionals seeking teacher certification.

Why it matters: Human-resources policies affect teacher recruitment and retention, classroom continuity, and district spending on salaries and professional development.

The superintendent told trustees that the district holds “high standards for performance” and uses evaluation results to improve operations. He also noted that some federal grant programs expect a portion of funds to be set aside for evaluation and that evaluation should not be a “gotcha” exercise but a support for staff development.

Dr. Hauswald confirmed the administration has requested an external review of salaries and wages that he expects to present to the board in February, and he asked for a comprehensive review of allocation formulas in March so the district can compare local ratios to regional and state data before making major changes.

He also described recent, short-notice professional development sessions held for paraprofessionals and food-service workers during inclement weather response and said the district continues to balance staffing, days of instruction and end-of-year make-up days.

Ending: The board accepted the presentation; follow-up reports on salary comparisons and allocations were scheduled for upcoming meetings.