St. Paul schools using federal dollars to boost hiring efforts

St. Paul Public Schools has tapped federal COVID relief funds to boost recruitment and retention, and has reported success finding teachers of color — a high demand area for any school system.

The state's second-largest district plans to continue its push, led by the new 14-member team funded by the federal dollars, to fill dozens of openings at an event this weekend.

Since January, 32 % of educators hired in St. Paul have been people of color, compared with 23 % of those hired during the same span a year ago, district spokesperson Erica Wacker said Monday.

Districts long have been relatively passive when it comes to hiring, she said. But St. Paul now is courting the current crop of student teachers — not only interviewing them, but also offering jobs on the spot, as is expected to occur Saturday.

"That is all new," Wacker said.

Still, there are challenges, and shortages remain.

Last month, St. Paul reported that the number of special education teacher openings had been whittled from 42 to 22 between August and mid-October, part of a quick rundown of new approaches that Board Member Jessica Kopp deemed exciting.

As of Monday, however, St. Paul still needed 21 special education teachers.

Minneapolis has had it worse in the area of special education. At the beginning of October, the district was looking for 45 teachers, while parents and educators sounded alarms. At that time, Minneapolis also had five human resources openings.

St. Paul's recruitment and retention team came together in June and is being led by Danaya Franke. She has headed a district "grow your own" program that helps people already in its ranks — aides working in classrooms, for example — become teachers.

Nine of the 14 positions are being funded with federal money. Altogether, $3.4 million is being used to recruit and retain educators of color, Wacker said.

New to the HR ranks this year is Lyle Dandridge, a teacher on special assignment. Among his responsibilities: helping teachers of color to overcome the sense of isolation that can ultimately drive some from the profession.

In August, the district had 138 teacher openings. By mid-October, that number dropped to 61, and now stands at 45, ahead of Saturday's future educator hiring fair.

That event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Education and Operation Services building in St. Anthony Park, and is being aimed at teacher hopefuls who will be completing their student teaching assignments in December.

The district hopes to fill as many as 40-plus positions that day, and then have the new hires begin work in January.

Also in January, district leaders plan to travel to Tennessee to host hiring fairs at three historically Black colleges and universities: Tennessee State University, Fisk University and LeMoyne-Owen College. St. Paul says it could make as many as seven such campus visits per year during the next two years.

Superintendent Joe Gothard said recently that the workforce shortages that have bedeviled school systems nationwide require long-term solutions, and that the federal funds can help position St. Paul at the start.

But next year, the district will be back before the state Legislature, he added, and among its priorities will again be assistance in hiring and retaining teachers of color.