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Davis School District outlines hiring process and reports improving teacher retention
Summary
District HR leaders reviewed the certified, administrative and executive hiring pipelines — from authorization to posting to committee selection — and said retention has improved since the COVID-era dip, with applicant volumes at levels not seen in decades.
Davis School District Human Resources staff reviewed the district's hiring process at a board workshop, describing a multi-step system that begins with superintendent authorization to post positions and ends with supervisor selection communicated through the district's Encore system.
Human Resources staff (speaker S5) told the board the district relies on a standardized position announcement, mandatory completed applications, committee-based screening and reference and background checks; ultimate hiring authority, the presentation said, rests with the board and is typically executed as a consent item on a business agenda. The staff cited district policy HR-001 as the policy foundation for recruitment requirements.
HR presenters stressed three hiring “buckets”: general certified hires, administrative hires and executive-level staffing. For administrative hires, school directors submit a body of work — written responses to prompts tied to Davis priorities — that the hiring committee uses alongside file reviews and interviews. A school director who presented the district perspective (speaker S10) said committees are staffed by people who understand the position being filled, often including current principals, department directors and at least one community representative.
On assessment tools, presenters said the district has de-emphasized reliance on purchased digital screeners and put more weight on demonstrated work and reference checks. HR staff said interview panels still have a role but that the written body of work and references better predict on-the-job impact than interview performance alone.
The HR presentation included a 10-year retention chart showing a COVID-era drop in educators leaving the district followed by a rebound; the presenter said the district has seen “application numbers that we haven't seen in 30 plus years,” and that retention in three of the last four years is above the 10-year average (speaker S5).
Board members asked about several operational issues: when hiring committees are selected, whether teacher feedback and encore evaluations factor into principal searches, and how part-time positions are handled. Presenters said committees are chosen based on the job's needs and typically include staff who have held the role being filled; encore evaluations and supervisor feedback are part of screening and reference conversations.
On part-time appointments, the district said policy does not require posting and a full application process for positions under four hours per day, though HR staff stated that best practice is to post all positions so the community can apply. For positions over four hours, the standard posting-and-committee process applies. The presenters also described an internal-first reassignment approach when enrollment declines: vacancies are reviewed for reassignments before outside recruitment.
The presentation did not propose immediate policy changes; board members flagged community concerns about part-time roles being filled before the public sees openings and discussed whether the district should change posting rules. HR staff acknowledged the trade-offs between speed and openness and said policy could be revisited.
The workshop closed the HR segment without formal action. The board's next scheduled business meeting was set to begin at 6:00 p.m.
