School leaders across the country struggled to staff classrooms this winter during the omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Not Adam Lane, the principal of Haines City Senior High School in Polk County, Fla., who always had a teacher in the classroom or a substitute ready to fill in.
It took years to get to that point. But assembling a staffing pipeline didn鈥檛 cost Lane any additional money and the foundation was rooted in something schools should already be doing: building meaningful and positive relationships.
Here are four key tenets on which Lane relies.
Cultivate your own students as a source of talent
For Lane, it starts with when students are in the classrooms. If students have a good experience and remember school and their teachers warmly, they鈥檙e likely to want to return as workers.
That was the case for Cynthia Rios, who now works as a front-office secretary, and Johnny Disla, a long-term substitute teaching digital technology, at the school.
How did Lane foster that environment?
One way is through the school鈥檚 positive referral system, where students and staff are recognized for the good things they do, not the negative ones. Another is a focus on respectful engagement between students and staff and among staff.
Lane also ensures that students know they鈥檙e welcomed back to work as teachers or in other roles in the school once they graduate.
Empower staff and students in decisionmaking
Students, staff, and parents play a big role in making consequential decisions at Lane鈥檚 school, such as designing school schedules and dress codes. Haines City Senior High School hosts open sessions on these issues and parents, teachers, and staff discuss them and then vote on what should happen.
鈥淚 am responsible for everything on this campus,鈥� Lane said. 鈥淏ut I am only one person out of 3,000. I like to allow discussions and forums and open voting to decide where our school moves.鈥�
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, for example, the school switched from a 鈥渟traight-seven鈥� schedule, with seven periods of 48 minutes each, to a block schedule, to reduce the number of times students moved between classes and cut down on hallway traffic.
But after discussions, open sessions, and voting, Haines City Senior High School will return to a 鈥渟traight-seven schedule鈥� next school year.
鈥淏ecause that鈥檚 what the majority of the faculty voted for, that鈥檚 what the majority of the students voted for,鈥� he said.
That kind of environment leaves people feeling that 鈥渢hey have valuable influence,鈥� he said, a quality that can be a magnet for future staff and increase retention for those already working there.
Develop a recruitment strategy
While recruitment is usually run from the district office, principals can also distinguish themselves in this area. Know the district鈥檚 recruiting officers, who often travel out of state for career and recruiting fairs.
For Lane, the first step is ensuring that his current students know they can return to work with him, and providing them with opportunities while they鈥檙e college to fill in as substitutes to see if teaching鈥攐r another school-based role鈥攊s right for them.
Another step is knowing the key players at the local education schools who are responsible for student-teaching. That helps to ensure that the high school gets an annual crop of student-interns.
Principals have to 鈥渟ign off on all the paperwork that the intern completed their expectations [that鈥檚 submitted] to the professor or the recruiting specialist at the college or university,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, in the end, you鈥檙e going to end up building a relationship with them anyway. You might as well start it at the beginning. 鈥�
Lane has hired about 28 teacher-interns over the course of his career, he said.
Faculty also helps. Staffers who have a good experience are more likely to recruit their spouses, relatives, and even colleagues from other schools.
Transfers have been a good recruitment tool for Lane.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e either people who know people who work here, or they鈥檝e just heard through the grapevine that we鈥檝e built a school on meaningful positive relationships, and we really focus on allowing empowerment with our staff and students in decision-making, and they want to be part of it,鈥� Lane said.
Create clear ladders of support for staff
Sometimes it鈥檚 not just getting people in the door, it鈥檚 also giving them the tools and support they need to get them to stay.
At Haines City Senior High School, each of the six assistant principals is responsible for about 40 teachers.
Those assistant principals are in charge of providing everything that teacher needs.
鈥淵ou will go to [the assistant principal] like [you would] a 7-Eleven,鈥� Lane said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care if you need a hot dog, a pencil sharpener, windshield wiper fluid, 鈥榟ow do I deal with field trip,鈥� a Slurpee, new textbooks, whatever you need,鈥� Lane said.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 really important because teachers can get lost, just like students can get lost, 鈥� he added.
Those assistant principals are held accountable for the performance of their teachers. At the same time, Lane ensures that the APs have what they need to help their teachers.
And Lane also makes sure those who are supporting the teachers have his backing. He does that through separate monthly meetings with the department heads to discuss issues on campus, monthly faculty meetings to give faculty the chance to share their input and to vote on topics and issues that require action, and then monthly meetings for specific programs.
Support doesn鈥檛 have to come from the top down, i.e., from the administrator to teacher; it can also be through setting up structures for teachers to support each other, with instruction and other things. Haines City Senior High School also has a new-to-campus group, which meets twice month, to help new teachers get used to the new environment.
