Before an anticipated second spike in resignations, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) is working to get ahead of the curve to get all classrooms filled with teachers in the fall — while board members debate the best way to recruit teachers, especially teachers of color.
NHPS Senior Talent Recruiter Kanicka Ingram-Mann discussed that plan presented and five years worth of teacher resignation data at the Board of Education’s regular Monday meeting. (View the presentation here.)
Ingram-Mann presented the board with how many have left the district, who remains, and which subject areas have taken the biggest losses.
The district employs approximately 1,900 teachers, she reported. Nearly 74.84 percent of those teachers are women; 72.87 percent are white. Fourteen percent (274) of teachers are Black, 9.51 percent (183) are Hispanic, and 2.75 percent (53) are Asian.
A total of 774 current teachers have more than a decade of experience. More than a quarter (508) of current teachers are new or have two years or less of experience; 642 teachers have 3 – 10 years of experience.
Over the past five years an average of 43 teachers have resigned each August, right before the new academic year. (Click here for a previous story about the increase in departures.)
The total of resignations in 2018 – 2019 was the highest over the past five years, with 168 teachers leaving.
As of December, 146 teachers have resigned this school year. Of that group, 22 taught in special education and 13 taught grade 3.
Throughout the years, special education teachers have led with the most resignations and continue to represent a major shortage category.
Forty-three teachers left this past August, following an annual trend with peaks in August and June. In 2019 – 2020 the district saw its highest peak in the past five years of resignations with 64 in August. That year the district saw no second peak in June but did see an abnormally high rate of departures in September, Ingram-Mann reported.
“We are still in the pandemic, so a lot of teachers are not leaving to go to other districts; they’re leaving the profession all together,” Ingram-Mann said.
Southern Connecticut State University has been the top feeder school for district teachers, supplying a total of 256 hires from 2017 – 2021. Another 56 came from the University of Bridgeport and 44 from Quinnpiac University.
Next Steps
The district plans to send representatives to career fairs hosted not only by NHPS but also by a dozen other organizations and universities.
Starting this past July the district began an early hiring process, which recruits students while still in school and offers them a position for the upcoming school year.
At its own upcoming April 28 career fair, the district plans to offer contingent contracts on-site for current vacancies. Of the listed career fairs, this will be the only in-person event; the others will be virtual.
“We do want to get ahead of the game,” Director of Human Resources & Labor Relations Lisa Mack said. “One of our goals is to ensure at the start of the 2022 – 23 school year that we have every classroom filled with a certified teacher.”
This year NHPS has eight partnerships with local organizations, colleges, and universities to boost recruitment, including an “Educator Rising” pipeline program. This program, launched at James Hillhouse High School, currently allows 30 students to take education courses at SCSU and Quinnipiac University. In 2023 the partners plans to launch a middle school program to get students started earlier on a teaching career track.
Approximately 900 hires have been made from January 2017 to December 2021.
Watch the full meeting below. Go to 1 hour 43 minutes to watch Ingram-Mann’s presentation.
Board Presses For Diversity, Beefed-Up Recruiting
In response to the resignation data and recruitment plan strategies, board members Monday evening offered recruitment suggestions and demanded the district’s human resources department get adequate funding to recruit and retain staff.
Board President Yesenia Rivera noted the different demographics of students and teaching staff demographics.
“We are an urban school district and 36 percent Black students, 48 percent Hispanic students, and yet we’re only at a little over 14 percent of Black teachers and a little over 9 percent Hispanic and Latino teachers,” she said. “I see that as a little bit of an issue.”
Ingram-Mann responded that NHPS intentionally partners with Gateway Community college which is a “Hispanic-serving institution.”
“We intentionally recruit those students to come to New Haven Public Schools,” she said.
Ingram-Mann described the shortage of teachers of color as two-fold. “Theres a national shortage of Black and Hispanic teachers. It’s not just a New Haven shortage,” she said. “So growing our own is going to be one avenue that we have to go.”
The second fold involves making partnerships with “Hispanic-serving” institutions like Gateway and Quinnpiac.
“There needs to be more human capital,” Ingram-Mann said. “We need to have more support in terms of how we recruit because it’s not in Connecticut.”
The district’s recruitment teams seek out hires in California, Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico, and Spain, Ingram-Mann added. English Language Learner Programs Director Pedro Mendia recently onboarded 11 teachers from Spain.
Mack added that 50 current staffers are teaching while earning their masters degrees.
“I don’t think that there’s a shortage of qualified Black and Latino teachers. I don’t,” Rivera said. “I think we have to go find them. And we have to tailor our recruiting to finding them.”
This year is the first that the district has allocated a budget to its human resources division to do recruitment, Ingram-Mann said. This has allowed for the district to attend career fairs that come at a cost and travel to recruit outside of the state.
Board Vice-President Matt Wilcox said in comparison to other school districts like Hartford, NHPS has a smaller, less-funded human resources recruitment team.
Board member Darnell Goldson challenged the board to push for a district budget that allows for “beef[ing] up” the human resources’ recruitment team as well as paying teachers more to allow for NHPS to “be competitive with the salaries around us.”
Wilcox also suggested a low-cost way to recruit similar to a strategy used by Quinnipiac University, where he works: to make all employees, including educators, librarians like himself, and custodial staff into everyday recruiters who can promote NHPS jobs.
Board member OrLando Yarborough III also suggested the district send NHPS staff to their alma maters to recruit.
Board member Abie Benitez agreed that the human resources department should get more funding to also retain teachers by offering growth opportunities like professional development and additional certifications. “Please present us with a budget that will support that work,” she said.
Superintendent Iline Tracey said she is not opposed to presenting a budget that increases funding for human resources, but said it will come at the cost of increasing the district’s $9 million deficit.
Tracey agreed that the district needs to pay its teachers more. She also argued that the minimum teaching certification requirements present an obstacle contributing to the national shortage of educators.
“People are not breaking down doors to be teachers,” she said. “It’s a tough job.”
Tracey recalled the difficulty of teaching and wanting to leave the professions at times in the past.
“Passing a test does not mean you can teach,” Tracey said. “Some people who do not even pass the test they do such a great job and you wonder why are we making testing a factor in this thing.”
No one wants to work in a terrible paying district. TEACHERS ARE LEAVING FOR OTHER DISTRICTS that pay 10k more. Bottom line.