Carson school district reduces staffing vacancies

The Carson City School District has reduced the number of certified, certified special education and classified special education vacancies in the past year, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources Dan Sadler said Aug. 8.

The vacancy rate from August 2022 to August 2023 fell 52% in certified positions and 37% in classified jobs, a milestone for CCSD’s recruitment efforts and human resources team, Sadler told the school board.

“The downside of it is it highlights we’ve had trouble retaining employees, and so that’s really the focus for future recruitment is how do we keep people here?” he said.

Sadler listed certified vacancies by site, which range from various teaching jobs in subjects to teacher on special assignment (TOSA) specialist to intervention specialist to school psychologist. Classified positions varied from administrative assistant I, custodian III, cook/baker, distant education assistant to special education paraprofessional and campus monitor.

The transportation department still has a shortage of bus drivers, attendants and special education drivers, but there is more interest among candidates willing to apply and obtain their commercial driver’s license for a position if they don’t already have one, Sadler said. There are no plans to change routes based on last year’s plans, transportation supervisor Cheri Fletcher has said, but the increase in its payscale has helped draw more applicants.

“We anticipate with the new payscales and the new rates going up for bus drivers, we can help them with that,” Sadler said.

Substitute positions also remain available district-wide.

Sadler said the district worked with the teachers union to open transfer positions and create a vacancy list as early as January. While there was a slight increase through February and March, the district began seeing a dropoff in positions by April.

According to district data, the district averages 29 new applicants per week and about 14 days on average to fill vacancies, and Sadler said he hopes to shorten that time to hire so the district doesn’t lose good candidates.

Less than 5% of Carson employees have more than 25 years of experience. Sadler said a higher-than-average percentage of inexperienced applicants could indicate higher levels of turnover.

Its most popular recruitment tool is the job fair – the district has held three this year.

For information about jobs with the Carson City School District, visit www.carsoncityschools.com.