District touts teacher residency, reports 313 new hires and thousands of classified applicants

San Bernardino City Unified’s human resources leadership presented an extensive update to the board on June 16, highlighting recruitment, employee development and a growth-oriented teacher residency program aimed at addressing hard-to-fill credentials.

"We are proud to welcome 313 new certificated educators for the 2026–27 academic year," said Dr. Robert Morales, director of certificated human resources, who noted the cohort includes district alumni and a substantive share of guest teachers transitioning to full-time roles.

HR staff reported recruitment-scale metrics: the personnel commission received 16,895 classified applications (updated during the meeting to 17,086), opened 132 classified recruitments, certified 115 eligibility lists and recorded 747 accepted classified employment offers. Irma Garcia, personnel director, said those figures show continued interest in working in the district and an active pipeline to fill positions.

The district described a teacher residency partnership with the University of California, Riverside supported by a $2.8 million grant from the California Commission on Teacher Credentiing. The residency provides stipends (about $32,000) to candidates in priority areas — special education, multiple-subject dual immersion and math — and the district reported expansion from an initial cohort of nine to a second cohort of 25 student teachers for 2026–27.

HR leaders emphasized other workforce initiatives: mentoring and grow-your-own programs, credential monitoring (60 clear credentials among recent hires, 161 preliminary credentials), and a customer-service training initiative that has trained over 300 participants. Presenters said the district plans to expand site feedback collection, student voice in customer-service assessments and a 'secret shopper' tool.

During Q&A board members asked about the residency cohort composition, recruiting methods, use of AI in application review and how classified recruitments are handled. HR staff described in-person recruitment fairs, examinations and eligibility lists for classified positions and said application screening is performed by HR staff rather than relying on AI-assisted screening.

The presentation concluded with board members requesting follow-up numbers (for example, how many residency candidates are district alumni or former students) and a copy of the video shown during the presentation, which experienced a playback delay during the meeting.