Human Resources Director Renee Garrett stands behind a recruiting table. On the table is information the Jamestown Public School District uses to help attract new teachers to the district. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

To help recruit and retain teachers in the Jamestown School District, the Human Resources Department relies on just one word – teamwork.

“We have so many people who support us in so many different ways,” Human Resources Director Renee Garrett told the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education Tuesday. “It’s really a team effort and we are constantly improving.”

Garrett noted that the district employs 1,003 people, and pre-COVID the district had a total of 911 employees.

“We have actually added staff as we move through the years, depending on student needs, and depending on what’s happening in our schools, and responding to community needs.”

Garrett added that the district’s needs are much like other districts that JPS works with, and competes against for attracting teachers. The director said retention rates for the 2023-2024 school year were clerical workers at 100 percent, administrative rate at 100 percent, teachers at 96 percent, and food service workers at 92 percent, and bus drivers at 83 percent. Garrett said the bus driver rate is due to relocation, and needs of their spouses.

In a district with about 1,000 employees, and half being teachers, JPS looks each year to hire about 20 to 25 new teachers.

Enrollment in college teacher preparation programs has declined by 53 percent, Garrett said, so JPS has had to rely on other means to recruit teachers. In the past, the district would put an advertisement in newspapers, and teachers would apply for jobs, and teachers would stay in the district.

“That’s not the case anymore. We do have to do more to attract and retain high-quality teachers,” she said.

Now, Garrett said, the district has begun using different strategies to attract teachers including social media and traditional advertising platforms; job fairs; labor, college, and community partnerships; and compensation.

“We do a 365-day recruitment. Being visible has been extremely helpful, and changing the way we do marketing and advertising (has been too),” Garrett said.

Garrett also added that the district is now looking into conducting exit interviews. One attraction point for JPS, Garrett noted, was the cost of living in Chautauqua County. She said that the cost of living in the county was lower than in other parts of New York State.

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said that teacher recruitment can be a rotating process where vacancies are filled only to find out that more vacancies may have been created by the fulfillment of current vacancies.