It has been a busy few months! I attended career fairs in Tacoma, Western Oregon University, Portland and ESD 112 along with some of our administrators. The career fairs are a wonderful opportunity to not only meet applicants but to let them know what a wonderful place Woodland Public Schools is to work. At least six of our new hires met with us at the fairs and left their resume. We have received positive feedback from applicants as well as other districts about our professional and welcoming presence at these fairs and look forward to continued relationship with these venues.
During the spring and summer month’s jobs are being posted, applicants are being interviewed and new hires are being processed. We currently have hired 22 certificated staff and 10 classified staff with a few jobs still posted or in process. I was excited to be involved in the planning of our New Educator Training which intentionally welcomes and educates our new certificated staff about their new home at Woodland Public Schools. U.S. Bank, Fiber Federal Credit Union, Burgerville, Luckman’s Coffee partnered with Janice Watts, Oil Can Henry’s and Lewis River Golf all generously donated items to our new certificated hires to say welcome to Woodland!
I am currently working on updating the employee manual for our employees. These manuals will be handed out at the beginning of the year and are a great tool in communicating with employees concerning staffing changes, policies and payroll information.
With the big push of hiring staff for the school year is coming to a close I will focus my attention on hiring both classified and certificated substitutes to ensure quality education continues when a teacher or para educator is gone for the day. Since October of 2015 we have hired 56 substitutes, adding to the 65 we had when I was hired. In Washington state there is a teacher shortage which in turn impacts our substitute pool so bringing new substitutes on is a process that continues all year.
As part of my duties I will now be the Title IX person in Woodland Public Schools. I will be attending a Title IX Investigator training on September 26-29, 2016 in Portland to become more knowledgeable about addressing issues regarding Title IX.
Looking forward to a wonderful school year!