This month I have begun preparing for recruiting new teachers in the spring of 2018. Our district attends two career fairs, one in Tacoma and one in Portland. I am updating our booth to make it both easier to pack and set up and more eye-catching to potential applicants. The job fairs are a great way for us to meet potential candidates and gather resumes since sometimes we have a job open up that we didn’t know about at the fair. That first impression we make is important and I have had staff say why they chose us is because of how the administrator made them feel when they met them.
In a survey sent out to new educators, we asked about how they took care of themselves and the answers helped us to see a need to give support to all staff in the area of healthy choices. I first tried to set up a monthly exercise class that would be open to all staff but there is a shortage of open gyms during the winter season. So I contacted both Premera and Kaiser and have started working with them to come up with ways to support our staff in this area. Part of the answer is helping staff to know what tools and supports they already have in their benefit plan so I have email staff to encourage them to dig deeper and take advantage of what they have. Another part of the answer is to help start a conversation around wellness and what that looks like for us as individuals. To increase that conversation I am adding a second page to my HR Hot Topics newsletter called SOAR and its purpose is to educate but also to learn from each other what is working. I am excited about developing this idea more as I go to help all of our staff live their best life.
I am also spending time looking at evaluations that are directed at our certificated specialists. The evaluations we use for teachers don’t work as well for counselors, psychs, librarians, coaches and social workers. Once we have decided on ones the administrators feel are most useful for specialists we will talk with the union about next steps.