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Avon Grove outlines teacher retention push and unveils recruitment video
Summary
The Avon Grove School District's workforce development team presented a package of retention and recruitment measures, including stay-exit interviews, a recruitment video for candidates, welcome kits, morale events and a spring signing day for students pursuing education careers. The board asked for more comparative data.
Board members heard a presentation from Avon Grove's workforce development action team on Nov. 11 detailing steps the district plans to take to keep teachers in the district and build its pipeline of future educators. Team captains Joanne Brennan and Kelly Harrison introduced initiatives the group said will support teacher retention and recruitment through 2028.
The presentation reviewed prior work: a partnership with a local university to allow high school students to take college education courses and the district's Aspiring Leadership Academy for staff development. District leaders said those programs have helped convert student teachers into hires.
For the coming years the team proposed a set of concrete measures meant to affect teachers' day-to-day experience and long-term commitment: conducting systematic "stay" interviews to identify what keeps staff in the district, offering exit interviews to departing employees, continuing robust onboarding and new-staff check-ins, distributing welcome baskets to new hires and limited candidate "swag," and piloting districtwide morale events and wellness days.
The presentation also introduced a recruitment video the team produced last year and outlined rollout plans: posting the video on district social channels, adding it to interview invitations, and placing it on the district website to give candidates context before an interview.
The team described measurable retention targets: an 86% classroom teacher retention rate for the current year, a goal of 88% for 2026-27 and 90% by 2027-28. Administrators said the metric counts district employees who return year to year and that long-term substitutes who become full-time hires are included as continuing to choose the district.
Board members praised the work and offered suggestions for next steps. They asked for additional comparative data and historical surveys (including year-to-year trends and surrounding-district benchmarking) to better explain why teachers are leaving in the 6-to-11-year experience window the team identified. Several members recommended pursuing community partnerships and practical supports for staff (for example childcare discounts or transportation assistance) as retention complements to internal strategies.
Administration said it will provide available survey and cohort data when possible and will continue to refine rollout plans for the recruitment video. No formal board action or vote was taken on the workforce items during the meeting.
