Personnel committee reviews staffing data and hears Bass-Hoover retention strategies

Frederick County’s Personnel Committee met April 13 and reviewed staffing and turnover data, heard a recruitment update from the division’s talent team and a presentation from Bass-Hoover leaders about practices they attribute to strong staff retention.

Rachel, presenting the staffing update, said the year-to-date turnover rate through March 31 is 6.84% and noted that 46 end-of-year resignations reported through March 30 are being tracked separately from that percentage. "We also have the year to date percent turnover, which is 6.84%," Rachel said. She told the committee that special education and elementary vacancies remain highest and that more than 90% of the end-of-year resignations were licensed staff.

The recruitment report from Dan West highlighted recent outreach at colleges and regional teacher fairs. He said the division attended events at Laurel Ridge Community College, the Pittsburgh Education Recruitment Consortium and several universities, and that from a March 7 event of 34 attendees, "35% of those that attended that event have now had offers and accepted offers with us." West described plans to expand postings on Indeed using an automated scraping tool and to increase targeted social-media advertising to reach candidates in college towns.

Committee members asked whether the division has seen surprising trends in reasons for leaving. In response, presenters said it is still early in the data cycle to identify firm trends and offered to provide additional breakdowns — including secondary and tertiary resignation reasons — if the board requests them.

The committee also heard retention strategies from Darren Thomas and Heather Hess of Bass-Hoover. The pair described several school-level practices they said contribute to lower turnover: setting "clear expectations and predictable structures," starting meetings with success stories and weekly electronic shout-outs, a "people-first" approach that gives staff flexibility for family needs, visible leadership in classrooms and hallways, and a robust mentoring program that pairs new teachers with trained lead mentors and instructional coaches. Heather described the school’s approach to discipline support, participation in PBIS and partnerships with community mentors for students with tier-two behavior plans. Darren and Heather said they intentionally hire for team fit and sustain traditions such as a rotating recognition award that staff pass to one another.

Committee members asked whether Bass-Hoover would share these practices division-wide; presenters and other members discussed piloting a new teacher academy next year to focus on first- and second-year teachers and using high-retention schools as models.

The committee did not take final action on personnel policies but used the meeting to request additional data and discuss how recruitment and school-level culture efforts might be expanded across the division. The human capital management system contract that would support some of this work was discussed later in the meeting and moved to the full board for consideration.