Summary:

Discover how Jason Tadlock, Superintendent of Elkhorn School District, overcomes K-12 education challenges. Dr. Jim dives into talent strategies, emphasizing the importance of being mission-aligned, offering continuous development, and maintaining investments even during tough times. Jason shares insights on leveraging a wide net for talent attraction, fostering an innovative culture, and prioritizing staff well-being with unique initiatives. Tune in for real-life applications of leadership best practices that drive educational success.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Talent Strategy in K-12 Education

00:52 Meet Jason Tadlock: A Leader in K-12 Education

02:56 Challenges and Strategies in Teacher Recruitment

04:42 Innovative Recruitment Techniques

13:16 Onboarding and Retention Best Practices

16:28 Continuous Professional Development

23:19 Building a Leadership Pipeline

29:07 Caring for Staff: Policies and Practices

32:36 Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with Jason Tadlock: tadlja@elkhorn.k12.wi.us

Music Credit: Shake it Up - Fesliyanstudios.com - David Renda



Join us at HR Impact to learn and connect with a community of HR leaders just like you. This is the space where top people leaders share actionable insights and practical playbooks in fostering a high-performing workplace of the future.

Sign up as a member today for community updates on the latest HR resources and exclusive event invites: www.engagerocket.co/hrimpact

In fact k through 12 education has numerous challenges that it's facing It's increasingly difficult to find talent And keep that talent in the profession in the face of all of these challenges, it becomes critical that leaders in the space make every hire count. So how do you do that? Part of the answer is taking a high touch approach and working to be as systematized as possible.

So what's Jason's story? Jason's been in public education for over 25 years, serving as a Spanish teacher, a K through 12 principal, a six through 12 principal, and most recently, 15 years as a superintendent. In addition to his time in public education, he served a two year voluntary church mission in El Salvador.

He's a proud kidney donor to his younger brother, and he has served as a foster parent for at risk youth. Most importantly, he's the happy husband of a seventh grade science teacher and a proud father of five children. Jason serves as a superintendent of the Elkhorn area school district, a five time PLTW district of distinction.

He was awarded the Wisconsin society of science teachers first ever administrator of the year award for a support of science education He's a board trustee of gateway technical college and a co founder of classmunity A web based fundraising management platform for school districts.

He also serves as an adjunct Science methods instructor for the university of whitewater in their teacher education department So the first question I have for you jason as I welcome you into the show You When do you sleep?

[00:02:43] Dr. Jim: You've done a lot of things throughout your career, obviously in their bio is probably just scratching the surface at it.

But give us a lay of the land .

Population growth from the mid nineties to the mid two thousands, where they doubled in size. So the school district went through a lot of growth and then it's plateaued with the housing market crash and that housing development didn't continue. But we have about 3600 students. I would say a quintessential.

So when we do have open positions, it is a large net that we have to cast. We put out statewide in some cases, I will put out in nationwide services as well, but. We really try to recruit the best possible teachers. And I'm proud of the fact that our school board's always supported us and always hiring the absolute best candidate possible.

So tell me a little bit more about [00:05:00] how that shows up in terms of how you communicate the value of working within your district to somebody that might not be familiar with your district, or if you're an out of stater. Certainly not familiar with it. So what goes into that message that you're putting out when you're looking at casting a wide net to attract talent?

And part of our recruiting as well is attending conferences and workshops and putting ourselves out there and making sure that we're not only visiting those conferences, but we're also presenting them. Telling our story and sharing that story. We found that's when I get a lot of inquiries from staff from around the state or even from other places outside of Wisconsin, [00:06:00] I will say that actually getting hires aside from that, Illinois, it's been more of a challenge because Wisconsin has not kept pace with the wages as other states have done across the country.

That, that is a challenge. We don't get a lot of applicants who come in from out of state, aside from across the border in Illinois that we're close to, but really attending those conferences and we'll even make sure that we're attending sectionals of individuals that we think may be a great talent acquisition to our district as well, and sometimes just doing that networking and.

Letting them know about us and making sure that they understand that, Hey, we're interested in them. If they're ever interested in coming and joining our team,

[00:07:07] Jason Tadlock: I think it really comes down to what is it that you're doing that should be shared and education is really different from private industry in that we're an open book and people go to those conferences to learn and acquire knowledge from others, get great ideas. So the talent acquisition, that component, that's a secondary piece of just.

Started happening, and it wasn't necessarily that primary intent. Let's go present so that we can attract people. But what we found is, as we were presenting, as we were sharing our story is people got a peek inside what we're doing as a school district that just naturally occurs where people say, you know what?

That's a pretty innovative district. That's an innovative program. I'd like to be a part of that.

So when you look at that. Tell me a little bit about how that shows up in not only the selection process that a candidate goes through, but maybe how that shows up in the onboarding process as well.

So of course they do the traditional application packet, but then we do a screening interview component where if we have 25 applicants, then we may invite all 25 of them to submit a video. where they record themselves. And we'll have a prompt of three to four questions that they do. They create the video and then they [00:09:00] submit that and upload that.

And that gives us a much deeper view into who they are, what their values are, and how they would be a good fit. And then we narrow down from that. So I think just For the reason that, that we're not limiting it to here's their paper packet. Let's bring in what we think are our eight best. We cast that wider net and really look at 25, 30 candidates in, in do that screening process, which from a time standpoint works well for us, but along with the screening interview, we're not just looking at their responses.

It also tells us. How are their tech integration skills? Can they go and create the video? Can they upload it? Can they follow the directions? Can they problem solve? We don't need them to be necessarily that high tech, incredible video editor, but can they go and, if they don't know how to do it, can they go and get the support or the help that they need to, So that they can create that product, upload it and have it ready for us to review.

So I really like that versus just looking at pieces of paper and saying, Oh, this is the good pile. This is the bad pile. You're really giving everybody an opportunity to showcase. Now when I think about the flip side of that, if I'm an older educator and I'm being asked, and this might or might not be true, and if I'm being asked to record a video that's not really my thing, I don't really want to put myself out there.

How have you overcome that potential hurdle and still, kept that pool as wide as possible and giving everybody a shot at showcasing themselves?

I think that people appreciate being able to get a little bit more in depth and us taking a look at more than just what's on paper there. And again, like I said, at the end of the day, it's not a judgment of what's the best video. It's, can you problem solve? Can you do that? And in our world and in what we do, everybody needs to know how to do it.

How to get online and how to utilize those basic tenants of technology. So if they can't do it or if they don't want to do it, or if they, this is something I'm just not going to put that effort into then to be frank, I, it's probably not a good fit for us in the first place.

But through their presentation, they really set themselves apart. So I really like that aspect of it.

If you've ever sat on an interview panel when you bring a candidate in and within the first question or two, Oh, yeah, this isn't Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This isn't the fit yet. You go through the process and, I've had teams where it's geez, that was a waste of an hour and a half. I can tell you that going through this process, we're bringing in people that are interviews are much richer, and we don't have that scenario where there's someone that we're bringing in that we already know right away isn't a good fit.

[00:13:04] Dr. Jim: No, that's real solid insight. So let's keep driving down that employee life cycle. So they've gone through the interview process. You've indicated some things that can help help leaders broaden their pool once they're hired. Onboarding is critical, and there's a lot of data that's out there, especially from my side where I'm a retention and turnover nerd or dork where the stronger your onboarding process, the better retention outcomes you can draw from it.

So tell us a little bit about. What you're doing that's unique from the first 90 days perspective from the first year perspective. That's really helped you retain the talent that you're bringing in.

Making sure they understand all the benefits in that selection, which is a pretty traditional approach to that. But we also make sure their email gets set up right away. So they're included in all the communication. So there's a checklist that they go through, they're issued their laptops that all the teachers have.

And all of that is taken care of, which leads to a. four day new teacher orientation that we have in August for the professional staff. And, I'm going to speak more to the professional staff piece. But we also have a embedded process for the support staff and support staff, they're coming on all the time throughout the year.

It's the health and safety, all the different trainings that go through response to intervention, how that works. And they're also assigned a mentor, which I think is very critical, but not just a mentor, here you go. They're going to teach you. It's a very formal process with checklists of here's what you go through with the staff and they have ongoing meetings throughout the year where they meet monthly.

They actually will do a book study as well and have those conversations. So the curriculum directors head those up and they really make sure that it's a rich learning process that everybody goes through on that orientation.

I'd like you to give us a little bit more line of sight on the non logistical things from an onboarding perspective and an orientation perspective and even in that first year that really has helped us. Educators and new professional staff that come into your organization hit the ground running and really feel like they're making an impact quickly.

But we also have embedded On basically a monthly basis where we have a full day set aside for professional development. So there's that continuing ongoing contact that opportunity to have those meetings and those supports. And at our high school level, they also have [00:17:00] a late start Wednesdays once a month where they have an additional two hour timeframe.

We use the. PLC model, the professional learning community model. So teachers are meeting with their departments. We do have department heads and organizations. So people are put in a scenario where they're in a very collaborative environment, working with their peers, working with their other teachers.

The curriculum in most cases is Well established and overseen, by the teachers and depending on the grade level on that span, like up at the high school level, most of the departments have written their own curriculum for the most part. As you get down to the middle school and elementary level, there's more systematic approaches on the curriculum where we make sure that those trainings are delivered to those teachers or the teachers are sent to the trainings relevant to what they're going to be.

Delivering in that instructional model,

Is there any systems or processes that you've put into place other than those defined days? That's really made an impact in your ability to retain and develop your talent.

I think something that's really critical is doing Attendance at conferences at those professional development seminars and those professional organizations. Our principals going to ASA, our world language teachers going to their organization, our FFA teachers being involved. We make it a point [00:19:00] to make sure that we have money set aside and budgeted for teachers to attend those conferences to continue their development.

And we also, as part of being an avid district. We have ongoing training with AVID, which is an organization stands for advancement via individual determination. And that really, we refer to that as our plate. That's our foundation of teaching instructional skills and strategies and the Art of pedagogy for a lack of better term and we will do site visits as well.

When looking at different curricular areas, I've had departments or teachers from different departments that, hey, we've heard of this innovative practice. Can we go and visit the school? We'll get the subs form so they can go and take that time and go and visit that school. I think it's. Critical that as educational leaders that we continue to encourage that and that we set the resources aside to allow for that.

We have to really encourage that.

In the bigger picture and development of the people that you have in your organization, a lot of organizations do take that wrong approach and I don't think it serves them well, especially when we're looking at the emphasis on development and retention of talent.

Oh, if we only had money like Elkhorn and I think I, are you kidding me? I wish we, we're almost 3, 000 below the state average on spending per pupil. And so if we can do it, I truly feel that just about any district can do it. But to add to that. Like Slate is a school leaders and technology education.

It's one of my favorite conferences is up at the Wisconsin Dells. It's really focused on innovative practices and utilizing technology and how you integrate that. And so what we do, I can't afford to send 250 teachers up to Slate. There's not room there. You'd have to shut down the whole school.

So they all have a sectional, we call it an innovative practices professional development day. And it's set up just like slate where we run three different sessions and the teachers can self select which sessions they want to go to. But it's just an example of when we're sending out people and making that investment for them to go to those conferences, They're bringing it back and they're delivering what they learned and those innovative practices to the rest of the staff.

And it doesn't have to be limited to just those at Slate. We do ask teachers to also share what they're doing in their classroom. But people know if I go to that conference, I'm going to come back and present something I learned from that. And I think that's. Something where you can keep the entire district involved and engaged if you're asking those people that you made that investment in those conferences to come back and share.

[00:23:04] Dr. Jim: It's clear that you're doing a lot of work, especially considering you're below average in terms of spend per pupil. You're doing a lot of work in terms of investment into the development of your staff and your educators.

So when you look at that, what's been the impact of that investment across your district when it comes to building a leadership pipeline that that helps you grow your talent within the district.

We'll share those programs with the teachers and we always want to. I want to keep them here selfishly in the district. But at the same time, I had a superintendent who [00:24:00] told me early in my career when I was a Spanish teacher becoming a principal and I was feeling bad about leaving the district.

And he said, Jason I'm excited for you. I'm happy for you. This is great for you and your family. You've worked hard to get your administrative license. And he said, whether you like it or not, we're all replaceable. And I want you to do, you have to make the decision that's best for you and your family.

So philosophically, we want to grow that talent. We want to develop it, but at the same time, we always, I always let my employees know you've got to do what's best for you and your family. And if that opportunity presents itself and it doesn't match with our timeline, then we're going to support you in, pursuing that.

And, I think that having that attitude of caring for the employees and not expecting these unreasonable loyalties or that, I've done this for you, therefore, you need to stay here with us. I think it creates a more openness and a good dialogue and, And it also creates a safe environment where people feel like they can come and learn and grow and pursue.

to apply for these positions and then find out time after time, it was just internal candidates. And I thought why did I waste that packet? So we do look internally first and then we open that up to the external market when we don't have that individual internally.

What are the things that you're doing that allows you to give line of sight into future priorities? How are you leveraging this communication culture that you've built across your district and hearing from the district? Hey, these are the things that we should be prioritizing.

These are the gaps that we see. Within our educators, within our administrators that need to be shored up. What's your process for identifying that and then acting on those things. So you're continuing to have a strong district in place.

AVID has a structure called plan, do study act. So we do look at that continuous improvement. But each of our buildings do a school improvement plan each year where they were working with their staff and their teachers based off of their data. But [00:27:00] we ask them no more than two to three goals tops within that school improvement plan.

We do not have a large, here's our any point strategic plan. We really focus on that overarching school vision and mission. And we keep it I would say more flexible looking at it from a year to year, but something that we have a really big emphasis on is that career and college readiness and granting access and opportunities to students.

So it's probably our greatest focus and then, focusing on student growth overall. And so a lot of our goals or our focus will be on that academic student growth and then making sure that we have access and opportunity for all students. Yeah. For example, our high school last year had over 2, 600 seats in dual credit classes.

And then we will revisit what are our goals, that mission and that focus on a regular basis. But we really keep it a more of a shorter term interval, not necessarily, five years down the road. However, when we do start major initiatives, we always have that patience to know that, okay, this is going to take three to five years to get there.

But I think keeping it narrowed, not having too many initiatives going on at once is critical.

What are the things that you've done that's had really strong impact that they need to adopt and bring into the bring into their districts [00:29:00] or their organization, share with us a little bit about some of the key things that you feel are important to call out and put into practice.

And to give an example, when the pandemic came and hit and we didn't close down any days other than when the state shut down in that initial spring and then we were open and what we did, our staff were very concerned about themselves getting sick and having COVID and something that the board established that we were able to put together is we granted a bank of COVID leave days.

So when we have a staff member or a loved one or a spouse who has a severe illness is terminally ill, or just has, a death in the family, but we don't want them to be in a position where they're like I can't go take care of my dying mother or my dying spouse because I have this financial concern and I'm out of leave days and so therefore they're giving up that time to be at work and so we have where they can apply for crisis leave days and the business manager and myself, if we both agree to it, we sign off on it, then we can grant those additional leave days for those staff so they don't have to be in that Financial buying.

And I think that carries a lot of weight with the staff and our employees. And I can tell you as a leader, I rest easy at night. Knowing that, I have a staff member right now who's dealing with terminally ill case of cancer and he worked and worked until he could barely, get around during the day.

I'm like we don't need to do this. You don't need to do this. Take the time with your family. We've got the crisis leave that benefits there for you. And I wish that was something that was more common in other districts. Also, when we hire staff and bring them on, my wife's the seventh grade Spanish teacher.

grant them at least some additional days as they're coming into that district. And so we do have a process where we grant those additional days to give that sense of security and that protection for those staff members. I think it's critical that as school leaders, we look at what are things that we can do that are high leverage, that give our staff that sense that we've got their back, that we're looking out for them, that it's a safe district to be a part of and that we care for them.

And it doesn't cost a whole lot of money at the end of the day.

So I appreciate you sharing that. Is there anything else that you feel is important for our [00:33:00] listeners to keep in mind when they're trying to replicate what you've done in your district?

[00:33:46] Dr. Jim: If folks want to continue the conversation with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Always happy to chat.

One is on the talent attraction side where you've emphasized or prioritized giving everybody a chance to showcase themselves beyond just What is displayed in paper? And I think when I think about in extremely competitive times and especially in times where it's difficult to find good candidates and you're just making evaluations on paper, giving every candidate an opportunity to showcase themselves will probably solve a lot of the talent attraction challenges that many leaders, whether you're in a K through 12 district or even [00:35:00] in the private sector might be facing.

You've got to take that opportunity to look beyond the piece of paper. The other thing that stands out about this conversation that we've had is when you're looking at building a culture of improvement and innovation within your district, there's something that you mentioned that every. School within your district is deeply mission and vision aligned.

And then when they're developing their goals, there's only two or three that they focus on at a time. And I think that's an underrated and important concept for any leader to keep in mind is that if you're focusing on 80 different things, you're going to The only thing that you can guarantee is that you'll have half baked or even quarter baked list of 80 things that never get, never move the needle much.

So we spent a lot of time talking through what you're doing in the district. And the key thing that I keep. Thinking about is your commitment to investing in the development of every educator and administrator within your district, and also taking that investment as an engine for innovation in the district.

So when folks are listening to this conversation and thinking about what can we do to build a high performance organization, Those three things that I just called out in addition to everything else that you talked about, Jason, it's going to be really valuable. So for everybody that's been listening to this episode, hope you enjoy the conversation.

Make sure you leave us a review. If you haven't already done so make sure you join the community. You can find that at www engage rocket. co slash HR impact, and then tune in next time where we'll have another leader joining us and sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.