Schools Coordinator Charts Path Towards Filling Vacancies, Keeping Staff

by MAYA MCFADDEN

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) currently has 193 job postings up on its website for 193 vacancies it’s looking to fill with new teachers, admins, coaches and substitutes.

Sarah Diggs has her eye on reducing that number — and on making the district more efficient in its hiring, and more attractive to potential employees.

Diggs is NHPS’s coordinator of recruitment and retention.

She stepped into that public-school human resources (HR) role this past September after the district reshaped and expanded a previous HR position that had focused solely on recruiting new hires, and not on keeping in place the talented teachers New Haven already has.

Before Diggs was hired for this current NHPS role, she served as the Managing Director of Learning and Development for Up Education Network and prior to that was Hartford Public Schools’ director of professional learning. She was also previously a principal at Achievement First Amistad Academy Middle School. In a recent interview with the Independent, Diggs explained the background work that the HR team has been prioritizing to bring new life to the district’s recruitment and retention efforts — all at a time when the city struggles with a teacher shortage and the departure of some staffers who feel unsupported and pushed out by the district. The Board of Alders also recently granted a final approval for a new teachers union contract that calls for a 15 percent pay raise over the next three years

"We Want To Show Our Urgency & Seriousness"

Diggs emphasized in her interview with the Independent that one of her top priorities upon taking over this recruitment-retention-coordinator role was making sure that a NHPS applicant’s very first experience with the district is a good one. That meant updating the digital system the HR department uses to track the district’s vacancies. The goal: to help the team post job openings more quickly and accurately.

“We can’t fill openings if we don’t know they exist or don’t post job openings,” she said. Much of Diggs’ work is done in collaboration with the teachers union and NHPS Senior Personnel Analyst Heather O’Grady.

Since the department has shifted to a live vacancy tracker, Diggs said, HR is able to tap into real-time updates to acknowledge and post for jobs within two days of their becoming open.

The department has also made improvements to its requisition tracking system for applicants and new hires, Diggs said. That should help avoid losing applicants due to a lengthy hiring timeframe.

Diggs said HR’s goal is to reduce resignations by 25 percent from last year to this year.

She said the district is exploring creating a teacher-career pathway for high school students to better learn about careers in education.

The school district also has “grow your own” supports for educators looking to get certified to teach through partnerships with local colleges and universities.

This month the district helped 13 current NHPS employees get enrolled in reduced cost Bachelor’s programs to get their undergraduate college degrees and work towards certification. Diggs said 30 current part-time and non-certified educators expressed interest when that program was announced.

“This is a buyers market and we are the sellers and what we’re selling is ensuring equitable outcomes for kids,” Diggs said.

“I will not have a system breakdown be the reason we don’t hire a great person for our kids.”

Diggs clarified that her role is not to determine a staffing model for the district, bur rather to fill open, vacant positions.

The HR department has also expanded its job posting network from two main places Frontline and CTREAP to now include LinkedIn and Indeed.

Additionally, district job openings are shared weekly with current staff looking to apply for a promotion or new positions.

Every Friday Diggs also creates postings to share with local colleges’ and universities’ job boards.

By increasing the departments’ posting network, Diggs said, NHPS is able to reach not just certified teachers but all other necessary school staff to fill gaps for jobs that support the whole child.

This coming Tuesday, the district will host its annual Career Fair from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Floyd Little Athletic Center at 480 Sherman Pkwy.

At the fair, the district’s hiring team will be giving applicants contingent jobs and on-site interviews.

“We want to show our urgency and seriousness,” Diggs said. “It also aims to make the applicants’ experiences streamlined.”

Despite the district’s revamped hiring efforts this school year, it’s seen slightly more resignations.

From August to the end of March, 247 staffers were hired. During that same time, 255 employees resigned and or retired.

As of March 24 the district had a total of 226 vacancies, most openings being for classroom teachers.

“When you see your employer is committed to your growth, you’re going to be less likely to leave,” she said. Additionally NHPS uses durational shortage area permits (DSAP) to get non-certified educators in classrooms now while helping them to enroll in certification programs. NHPS Director of Student Services Typhanie Jackson established two certification pathways through Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) and Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) specifically for special education teachers.

The Office of Special Education has also established a new partnership with Teach Connecticut after central office issued a teacher-interest survey that received 90 responses requesting help with becoming certified teachers.

Jackson’s and Diggs’ teams are now helping to align personal supports for all 90 staffers including free coaching sessions and vouchers for people to engage in free praxis testing support.

Before Diggs’ arrival, the district also used ESSER funds to hire 65 non-certified teachers to reduce teacher-student rations for K-3 classrooms. Those ESSERfunds-hired teachers have been supported over the past two years in joining certification programs.

Another retention effort Diggs has been backing is developing processes for teacher placement and transfers.

She described herself as a listening ear for educators and on Friday heard from two teachers who expressed interest in transfers next school year.

In a phone interview Friday, Diggs said one teacher asked about transfer options that would allow her to have an earlier start time to deal with personal tasks in the afternoon.

“I’m dedicated to those committed to New haven and want to ensure their placement is best,” Diggs said. Diggs aims to connect recruitment and re-

Read more by going to THE INNERCITY NEWS .COM

Social Security Matters:

By Russell Gloor, AMAC and AMAC Foundation

As the first quarter of 2023 comes to a close, the AFRO would like to give special attention to issues related to senior citizens and social security. In this week’s edition, we have included two pertinent questions about the planning and usage of social security benefits.

Ask Rusty: will social security be there for me?

Dear Rusty: I am 56 and hope to hold out to get maximum Social Security at age 70. However, with all of the talk of Social Security funds being depleted, is it wise to continue with this mindset? Will there even BE Social Security benefits for folks in my age bracket?

Should I think about starting Social Security benefits as soon as I am eligible?

I am employed; however, I don’t have a large amount of savings. I contribute to my company’s 401(k) and receive the match, and I own my own home (almost paid off) with an estimated $250,000.00 in equity, but I won’t be able to stay in the home long term. Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

–Signed: Weary Worker

Dear Weary Worker: I don’t suggest changing your strategy due to fears of Social Security not being there – it will be. Although the program is facing some future financial issues, the very worst that could happen is that everyone’s benefits might be cut by 20 percent or more if Congress fails to act to restore the program to solvency before the Trust Funds are depleted in the early to mid-2030s.

In my opinion, Congress will not likely fail to act because to do so would be political suicide. The fact is, they already know how to fix Social Security’s financial issues; they just lack the bipartisan spirit and political fortitude to do so until they extract every possible ounce of political capital from the issue. So, it’s largely a matter of how long Congress will wait to reform the program.

Right now, the Social Security Trust Funds hold about $2.8 trillion in reserves to ensure full benefits will be paid. But Social Security now pays out more in benefits than it receives in revenue, so the extra money needed to pay full benefits is taken from those reserves. What is needed is reform which addresses the reality that people today are living much longer and collecting benefits for much longer than the program is structured to accommodate.