Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Principal JL is an educational leader who explores various topics facing educational leaders today! The Mission of this podcast is to inform and inspire other Educational Leaders on how to be their best for their Schools by honing their skills and talents so they may impact their teachers, staff members, students, parents/guardians, and community members positively for their School District! Come with a Growth Mindset as we journey through Educational Leadership!
Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Episode 24: Hiring & Retaining Teachers in 2025: Strategies for a Shortage Era!
The teacher shortage crisis demands innovative solutions from today's educational leaders. Principal JL dives deep into practical strategies for attracting and retaining quality educators in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Discover how forward-thinking schools are building their own teacher pipelines through creative programs like paid high school internships and paraprofessional advancement pathways. These initiatives not only fill immediate staffing needs but create sustainable sources of educators already familiar with school culture.
Speed has become the decisive factor in successful hiring. Learn why waiting to build candidate pools often backfires and how pre-screening, rapid interviews, and "soft offers" can secure top talent before competitors. Principal JL shares personal experiences of losing excellent candidates by moving too slowly and how changing this approach transformed his hiring outcomes.
Beyond traditional recruitment, we explore the power of school branding through strategic social media presence, expanding hiring pools with career-changers through transition programs, and the critical importance of retention through supportive leadership. The podcast offers actionable insights on using AI tools to reduce teacher workload, fostering collaborative environments, and transforming the way we view staffing challenges.
"Don't look at resignations as a negative," Principal JL advises. "Look at them as opportunities to bring someone in to enhance your school." This perspective shift, combined with practical strategies for building positive school culture, creates a comprehensive approach to educational staffing that works even in challenging times.
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Hey everybody, welcome back to Educational Leadership with Principal JL. Today's episode we're diving into a topic that every school leader is thinking about hiring and education for 2025. If you are a principal, hr director or a district leader, you know the struggle is real. The hiring landscape is changing rapidly and we need to stay ahead of the curve. So in this episode, we're going to explore where are the teachers, where aren't they? How districts are getting creative in hiring and branding, networking and recruitment in 2025. Now let's get into it. First step where have all the teachers have gone? This question keeps coming up and where are all the teachers?
Principal JL:We have a teacher shortage, right? Well, I'm not going to just say we have a teacher shortage, but we also have an administrator shortage as well. We have a parish shortage. We have a shortage across education as a whole, and there's a lot of reasons for that. A lot of it is colleges aren't producing as many graduates as they used to in the past. Over the past decade or so, there's been enrollment in teacher prep programs declining. The reality is many students are choosing other career paths that have better pay and less stress. So we have math and science teachers, for example. They're seeking opportunities in engineering or the tech side, some high needs areas such as special education, fcs, science, math. These are areas that are hard to find, especially when you specialize in the things like agriculture and stuff like that as well. If you have those types of positions, those are fewer people, which means there's less people specialize in these areas, and so that creates that shortage. So what does it mean for schools? This means retention is important more than ever, and hiring isn't just about filling positions. It's about making teaching an attractive, sustainable career, and so there's lots of ways we can do that. So we're going to go over some different strategies that I have used. That we're doing, but as well as I've heard other people doing as well, and if you guys listen to this episode and their strategies you're using that I haven't mentioned in this episode, I'd love for you to reach out and let me know what those are. I can use that in a later episode or do an update with how other people are utilizing different strategies to hire people to make education more attractive.
Principal JL:The pipeline isn't what it used to be. We used to have people in college, you know, lining up, and it was hard to get a teaching job. Right now, we're just searching for anybody and everybody to come into teaching and finding different ways to do that. So one of the ways that we have done that is we're learning how to grow our own here in our district. So a lot of schools are doing a lot of different things.
Principal JL:So one of the things that we're doing to help grow our own is we started a work-based learning program. It's a two-year program where they start as juniors. In year one they are basically learning different job skills. They are going out on job shadows, they're looking at different career areas that they're interested in for a career, for a career, and so with that, in year two they get to pick one of those areas and they get to go out and do an internship. We do paid internships with them and so their senior year they are actually doing paid internships with different businesses in the community as well as within our district.
Principal JL:So what we have done as a district we have hired five of those students that are interested in education and they become paraprofessionals within our system and in this case we're having them work in our elementary schools and that's been a really big help and has filled some needs and those kids are getting firsthand experiences as what it is like to be in the classroom, what it's like to be in education, and for a lot of these students they are choosing to become educators. So they're choosing through this experience. I'm going to go to college and become an educator, and so that's been a really great thing for us these past couple of years to grow our own students to want to be in education, and so we have other school districts actually starting to model that as well, and so that's been really kind of a cool thing that we've done in our district. When we talk about growing our own, another thing I've done, I've hired college students in the education field as a para, and the goal is is I start trying to recruit them to come to our school district in whatever capacity, and so that's another strategy that you can look at doing if you have a university nearby, to try to get some of those students to not just do field experiences but also to maybe work for your district in some capacity. But that means you got to be creative with your schedule and be flexible with them so they can still do both. So that's something we're doing, or that I've done, and I actually am looking forward to retaining that college student as a teacher for us in the coming year.
Principal JL:Another thing is paraprofessionals.
Principal JL:You have paraprofessionals in your building.
Principal JL:If you have any of them that want to become a teacher. There are paraprofessional teacher programs out there. I know of one for sure, and if there's others out there, I would love to hear about them. The one I know is Grand Canyon University has a program where paraprofessionals can go back to school and become a teacher. They have a program designed just for that. So that is another way that you can help grow your own, the people that you have within your building, to become teachers. So you can hire them. And the nice thing is is they know your culture, they know your school, and that's pretty cool idea for you to really grasp onto if you have people in that position. We always need paraeducators, but there are some out there that maybe would like to take that next step, and so that's another way as well.
Principal JL:Another thing that's really popular has been going the last couple of years is paying student teachers to offer in some sort of compensation to be a student teacher in your district. There's a lot of districts that have done it, we have done it. Get them in the door so you can try to recruit them within your system. The next topic we're going to talk about the speed is the name of the game when we're coming down to hiring right. So right now a lot of districts around us here in Nebraska has moved their cutoff date for allowing people to transfer out or to move around in their district but also to seek jobs in other districts. We moved it from April 15th all the way up to March 15th now, so we lock in our staff at March 15th. I know there's other districts out there that are still locking people in on April 15th or after April 15th, but for us, because of the other districts around this locking people in early, we had to make the move to lock in people early, and so we cannot allow a teacher out of their contract after March 15th unless we find a suitable replacement. So that's another strategy. Districts have gone to and I know not a lot of districts I know not every district out there has done that. I know not every district out there has done that, and so that might be something that you have to think about. If you're a superintendent or a principal that does a lot of the hiring, maybe you have to move up that lock-in date so you're not losing teachers to other districts because you're still giving them the ability to move, and so that's another strategy that we have done as well.
Principal JL:When it comes to it, I am telling you, the quicker you can get people hired, the better. What I have learned in the past is I would wait to get a pool and then I would search through the pool. I'd go, hey, I'd get my team together, we'd pick the top four or five, but I have actually lost good candidates doing that. So if we got, you know, a few people in the pool, but we have some quality people I'm going to move a lot faster. This year I had two open positions. I have an English teacher and a FCS teacher position open. We started actually hiring those open positions in November of last year, so in November of 2024, I already hired my English teacher and my FCS teacher for the 25-26 school year because I had some really good candidates that applied and I moved quickly. I said you know what, I'm not going to lose out on this person because a couple years ago I decided to slow play it and try to get more applicants. I moved quickly. They were a good fit, we went ahead and offered, we got them in the door and now that pressure of trying to fill that position is off, and so I'll be honest, I've been really lucky.
Principal JL:This year. I've only had one teacher resign as of so far for the 25-26 school year. So I only have one position and I'm in a building of a thousand students. I have about 84 certificated staff, 22 paras, and then I have my consortium staff and my my secretary. So I'm in charge of a large school building. So where having only one teacher resigned to move on was pretty remarkable, because I averaged eight to 10 people per year that I was filling teacher roles up until this year, and so that's been really great.
Principal JL:To see not happen is losing a bunch of teachers. But yet the people that I've lost over the last couple of years is because of family reasons, career movement, because they wanted to seek another position in another district, not because they were unhappy with what they're doing. They just wanted a change, and so my job was to help them do that. So when I am looking for a teacher, I'm looking to find great candidates. So if I have a quality candidate that's applied, I'm going to try to get them in and hire them or interview them as quickly as possible. Here's some strategies to think about when you're trying to hire teachers right now. So it's a great idea to pre-screen your candidates early before the interview.
Principal JL:The reason why you want to do this do reference checks. Don't do them afterwards. Sometimes you do that, but sometimes I think you lose valuable time when you do that. If you got a good feel of this candidate when you are interviewing them, have all those reference checks done, because then you can create an offer right away. And so what I do even though I have to have HR approval, I give soft offers. If we really like somebody, we'll actually give each other signals in the interview and I will give them a soft offer. I'll say, hey, we would really like to offer you this position, but it's going to be contingent on my human resource director approving it and me giving you hard numbers to go with. But I wanted you to know that we like you so much that we're going to extend you an off, and so I'm very open and transparent and clear with that.
Principal JL:And actually that's something I actually just did this past week trying to hire a science teacher, just saying, hey, we really like you. My team is really on board. You fit us. This is kind of what's going to happen next, and so being preemptive with your screen is important. If you like somebody, don't overthink it. If they're a good fit, make the offer before they leave the building. If you have all those things in place before you even interview and then trust your team and that's something that I do is I try to bring in a teacher within the area. That teacher might be working with you. Hey, this is a teacher you might be working with, so I'm going to bring that teacher in for the interview, as well as my assistant principal and other people that are a part of that hiring process. And if my team is saying this is a go, I don't even think about it, I said, yep, we're going to do that, and we also. We will collaborate through that. But knowing that they're on board, that we're on board, we're all thinking the same thing. It makes it a lot quicker process. And then you're not going to lose teachers on the way out, because that has happened to where, if I didn't do those soft offers, if I didn't tell them that we really liked them, I have lost teachers because they've had interviews at other places and they're being offered and they may take that offer if I don't let them know before they leave the interview that we really like them and want them to be a part of our community of educators at our building. So I've learned that the hard way and those are some things and some tips and strategies to kind of speed up the game a little bit for you so you're not losing out on good, good candidates that you bring in for interviews.
Principal JL:So the next thing I would like to talk about is the power of branding and social media. This is really important. I'm really lucky because right now our school district really has bought into this. When I got here, it wasn't as big of a deal to brand your building, but now it is. And so that's something I know we worked really hard on in the high school level is to brand, put out positive social media posts about what our students are doing, not just activities, but in the classroom and other sponsored organizations within our school. Put out these social media posts to let the community know, hey, these are all the great things that are happening, and so every school building in our district has a content creator position to where they have somebody that helps put out social media posts for their building, and so our content creator in our building will work with our Tiger Vision media class to help create and produce content and put it out as well as they do their part and help create content as well, and they can schedule these things out. Our top social media posts are Facebook, instagram and XR, aka Twitter, and we utilize Class Intercom so we can create unique posts in all three of those domains through one application to where we can actually schedule out posts and different things, and our content creator does a fabulous job. She schedules out so many per day. We have things lined up.
Principal JL:There's always something that is posted every day about what's going on at our school and all the great things that are happening, and what that does is it puts our brand out there in front of people and they can see when we have candidates that want to be a part of our school and they actually do their research. They're going to see all. We have candidates that want to be a part of our school and they they actually do their research. They're going to see all the great things that are happening within our building and that's going to bring people in and they're going to see like, wow, this is really cool, they do this and they have this going on. Man, I want to be a part of that, and so that's another way of getting people to come to you is being able to brand, being a social media presence, really controlling the narrative of your school, so people can want to be a part of that. Those are some really cool things that we have done over the last few years to help bring candidates on and we tell people hey, take a look at our social media, look at all the good things that we're doing, and if you want to be a part of that, we'd really love to have you. So those are really a cool thing, and a cool way to help recruit is to control the narrative and to brand yourself and get those positive stories out there about your school.
Principal JL:The next thing I want to talk about is expanding the hiring pool. Okay, everybody's like teacher shortages, administrator shortages we have all these shortages, but you have to also think about other ways that you can maybe expand that pool. Right, we may not get as many people coming out of college, but there's people out there that may want to teach, and in Nebraska. If you have a bachelor's degree in a field, we can have you start a transition program to where. It takes a couple of years, but once you are offered a job in an area, you can actually be eligible for this transition program, which is through a university, and they kind of help you get the education piece, all the different things that you could think about at a teacher prep program. They will teach you those things as you're working as a teacher. And so I've worked a lot with those transition teachers to where they're coming from a field of study or just a career and they wanted a change and they thought maybe education would be a great fit for them for one reason or another, and so being able to build up your teacher pool by looking at people that want to teach but may not have a teaching certificate, they can go through a transition program to get that and so you can bring them on in that capacity as well, and they've worked out really well A lot of those those teachers have.
Principal JL:They really want to be there, they really want to figure it out and work. They were. They're very good about constructive feedback and those things. It's always nice to have a perspective from outside of education. Come in and help, because education is kind of a unique thing and people that are out and you know doing other things come in with their experiences. That just brings value to your school as well. Not saying that teachers that just go to school and become teachers are valuable they are. They're very valuable. Having people with different perspectives coming in and teaching is also a great thing too, so don't shy away from that. Perspectives coming in and teaching is also a great thing too, so don't shy away from that.
Principal JL:Also, if you're close to a border, let's say you know you're close for Nebraska, we're close to the Kansas border. When I was at my other district we're close to the Kansas and Colorado borders we hired people from out of state, because not every state is the same right, with their benefit packages and their pay and different things like that. I was able in my career to be able to bring people in from the state of Colorado, from the state of Kansas, because we had better benefits than they did and so we had highlight those things. Hey, here's some cool benefits we got. Come on over. We would poach people from other states. Now, fair or not fair, but that's a strategy you can use, if you are close to a border of a state to try to bring people in. Even if you're not, you can see people from other states that will be like you know what. You guys have better benefits, you have better pay. People need that. So don't be afraid to hire those people from out of state. They will have to go through the process with your state to make sure they can get certified and go through those hoops, but don't be afraid of that because you want to be competitive and you want to try to fill the roles you need to fill for your students. And that sounds kind of bad because you're like thinking, oh, I'm poaching from other people and they're struggling too, but at the the same time, we're all trying to fill our roles and make our building the best. And if you are doing this job and you are creating a culture and climate that people want to be a part of, you're going to be able to be more successful at that if you're not building that culture and climate that people want to be a part of. So that's another thing.
Principal JL:Another thing you can think about is considering international teachers. They will require a J-1 visa. There are a lot of people out there that do this. That's something that I have looked into. I haven't done that yet. I've heard positives and negatives on it, but at the same time, I'm using all these other strategies on it. But at the same time, I'm using all these other strategies. This might be a strategy I learn, I use on the back end of like. I'm really like, oh man, I really got to have this. That's the strategy that I could go to when it comes to you know, trying to hire and fill your roles, as well as maybe look into those international teacher options as well.
Principal JL:Now, another thing I would love to talk about in Nebraska, we're doing something I feel is like it might be something that you're doing in other states, but this is something I've learned this year when I'm hiring in Nebraska if you're a certified teacher and you want to get more endorsements on your certificate, all you need to do is take a praxis in that content area. So you could take a praxis in content areas such as like 5.9 English or 7.12 English or 5.9 Science and 7.12 Science, and you know same with math and whatever content area that you don't have, if you're really good at those content areas and you can pass that practice, that becomes an endorsement on your teaching certificate and what that does. It makes you more marketable to fill roles within your district. Or if you feel like you need a change, you can look outside your district not try to encourage it, just trying to say it's a reality. Now to where you can get an endorsement just by taking that practice test in that content area, and so it might be one of those things.
Principal JL:As a principal, we have a really good teacher, but we have a really need in this area. If they're really good at this content area, maybe they can take that practice in this content area, maybe they can take that practice in that content area and maybe you move them into that area. So there's a lot of different ways you can look at this. I find this a very great way to think about how to fill holes in your position to where you may not need a teacher in this role because maybe your numbers are lower, could you move them into another teaching role that they're strong in. So that's just something to think about. Right, that's a really cool thing that we're doing here in Nebraska and other states may be doing it. If you guys are doing it, I would love to hear about it, you know, let me know, email me, you know, send a message, hear about it, you know, let me know, email me, you know, send a message. I have the fan mail and you can really click into that and send me a message on some of the things that you have seen on that end as well. I don't know if that's happening in other states, but I know it's happening in Nebraska, so I think that's really cool.
Principal JL:So one of the things I want to get into another strategy is retention. Right, retention in my book is the number one way to hire staff, just like in college, right? They have this NIL going on to where coaches have to maintain the people within their team and, if they're not a good fit, maybe help them go somewhere where they are a good fit. Same thing in education. We want to try to maintain the staff we have, so we have less people to hire when it comes to the hiring season, because if you have a good school culture, climate and you're supportive in your staff, your staff's going to stay Okay.
Principal JL:The number one thing you have to do as a principal and as a district leader is to make sure your staff is supported and they feel supported. They have to feel supported as well. You can say you have all these supports in place, but your teachers have to feel supported as well, and that keeps them there. If they don't feel supported, they're going to look around for a new place, and I actually have people applying for jobs in my district that aren't happy at other districts because they don't feel supported. They feel overwhelmed, overworked, burned out. They want to try something different, so they're looking at other districts to do that.
Principal JL:That's why it's really important as principals, as educational leaders, is to retain the staff we have, and here's some things you can do that Make sure your professional development you have is meaningful, it's productive, it's something they can use and take away. Because if you give a meaningless professional development and everybody like professional development oh my goodness, that's a dirty word in our world sometimes because because professional development isn't done right all the time. But if you have meaningful professional development, your staff is going to get something valuable out of it, they're going to use it and they're going to see the value of it. You've got to have that as a leader and because teachers feel supported in that. Another thing to think about is how are you supporting your new teachers?
Principal JL:Here, where I'm at, we give our new teachers it doesn't matter if they taught they're a brand new teacher coming out of college or if they taught for 15, 20 years, it doesn't matter. You're going to get a guide teacher. You're going to get somebody that knows the building, knows the district, knows the ins and outs, because you may be a great teacher, but you're going to need to have a go-to person to understand what we do, what our culture is like, what is our expectation, and to have that point of contact, that collaboration piece with that veteran staff in that building is going to be really important, on top of just the other things that we do to help support our new teachers with our mentoring program and different things like that, to help them, you know, not feel the stress and burnout and have a go-to person, not just in the building but in their content area. That's also another thing we do is our PLC process, to where our teachers collaborate a lot, to where no one's on an island and this happens a lot in education. Here's your books, here's your room, boom, see you later. I'm only going to bother you if there's a problem here. We don't do that. We want people to be supportive, we want them to collaborate. We don't want them to be on that island, and so we do a lot of things in our district to not have people be on an island. So it's really important to do is how do you support your staff? And then another thing is listen to your staff. We have a school improvement team to where my staff comes in and we try to find solutions to issues we're having and we're trying to improve our school a little bit every day and we've done a lot of great things in our district the last couple of years to improve our school a little bit every day, and we've done a lot of great things in our district the last couple of years to improve our school building and our culture. And it really comes down to listening to the staff, taking their ideas and finding solutions with them and collaborating. So that's a huge piece when it comes to retention, because when they are part of the solution, they feel empowered, they feel like they're supported, they're listened to and they're going to stay because they have all these positive interactions within your school district, and so that's a really powerful way to do that.
Principal JL:Another thing to help teachers get retained is find ways to help them save time, and I do this by looking at technology. Everybody, everybody's all afraid of AI. Don't be afraid of AI, lean into it. So what we have done is we are piloting Magic School AI. You've probably heard me talk about this before, but this is something that helped our teachers save time, and I've heard a lot of great stories on how that's doing that, and so this whole program is designed for teachers and administrators can use this as well, and I'll tell you about how I use it here in just a second.
Principal JL:But my staff has utilized it and they have saved hours of time trying to differentiate material, trying to create material that's relevant towards the learning targets that they're teaching. They use it in a lot of different ways, but they said you know what? It also gives me ideas that I have never thought about, because, as humans, we think of all our experiences and we look at the experiences we have and draw on those to help us guide our teaching. Well, this tool is being used to help teachers come up and generate ideas they may have not have thought of and go wow, that's a really good idea. Maybe that's what I can implement. That's a strategy I never thought about. Maybe that's cool. You know, let's do those, and teachers are using those ideas because they have a tool to help them come up with that.
Principal JL:The other cool thing about Magic School AI is the teachers are using it and they're teaching the kids how to utilize it properly. And we have an English teacher or a couple of them, really that will utilize the AI tools with their students and say, hey, you're going to do your writing, but this AI tool is going to provide feedback and it's going to help you make your writing better. But it's still that student's writing, it's still their ideas, it's still their work. They're just getting some support and other ways to get that feedback to help that writing become better. And that teacher can set the parameters out. What does that look like and how do they utilize that? And a teacher controls which tools those students can use within that platform, and so I think, if you haven't really looked at it, I'd say look at it, because it will help save your teacher's time, but also that's part of keeping them from getting burned out. That's also a part of making them feel supported. So that's something that you can really really look at doing Now.
Principal JL:As a principal myself, I use AI tools as well, and right now I'm using them to help me write formal evaluations help me write formal evaluations, and so what I do is I take the information that I have and it helps me develop strengths, opportunities for growth, and it also helped me find strategies, because even as a principal, I have to draw on my experiences to help my teachers learn and grow. That's why I have a curriculum and instruction background to have more tools in my toolbox so I can help put more tools in my teacher's toolbox. But you know what Using AI tools has helped me become a better principal, to where I'm helping them come up with more strategies to help them grow and learn. So what I'll do is I'll utilize these tools to come up with strategies that I could share with my teaching staff to strengthen some areas, but also to give them opportunities for growth, and I don't like calling them weaknesses. I like calling them opportunities for growth, because I want it to be a positive thing that they're having, and when you make it a positive thing, they're going to be more receptive to that. So I utilize AI and you know what it used to take me about an hour per teacher to do that. So I utilize AI and you know what? It used to take me about an hour per teacher to do that. I got it now to where it takes me 20 minutes to do that formal evaluation after I've done my classroom visit, and it's become a really powerful tool and I've had really great conversations with my teachers this year because I have utilized that in a way that helps me save time, but I'm actually giving them quality feedback and really helping them become better, and they actually have taken that feedback and used it, and so that's a really cool thing and that's all part about making your staff feel supported, so don't be afraid of that. That's another strategy you can use as well.
Principal JL:The final thing I want to get into you might have to get creative when it comes to staffing and finding solutions. So there's a lot of schools out there, especially small rural schools, that they're having a hard time finding people to fill their roles, and so I've heard people using online programming and hybrid options to where they may have a distant learning option, to where they collaborate with another district. Hey, we don't have this type of teacher. We need help. You have that type of teachers. They're a way that we collaborate to where your teacher goes online for our students and we can work together to help get our students that education that they deserve, collaborating with other school districts to see if they would be interested in having that teacher teach in their room but be more on a on like a hybrid model to where they're online, where another class is coming in and and learning with that other, with other class and student from another district. Those are things I've seen. Those are things that that are viable options out there that you might want to think about. And then you might want to think about how to get creative with the schedule as well, as maybe you know, try to maximize your staff. You might have staff that might be certificated in different areas, but they may not be as needed in one area as another and how can you have them teach other classes in different content areas. But that's also helping you fill the gaps, fill the holes, but also give your kids a positive interaction. But also that goes with hey, maybe you know that teacher might be wanting to step out and do some different things and utilize their endorsements in other ways. I know for me. I taught physical education and math and there was a time where I did both. I was teaching math in the morning, physical education in the afternoon. There's a lot of ways you can look at that, and so those are things that you can think about. How can I utilize my existing staff in other ways, just to be creative on those things.
Principal JL:Now here's some of my final thoughts when it comes to hiring. So, when it comes to hiring in education, it's tough, right, and when you get a resignation, that's hard because you're like, oh no, I got to fill this. Where am I going to find this teacher? Don't look at that as a negative. Look at that as an opportunity to bring someone in to your school, to enhance it. Right, and if you think about it in that light and not negative, oh my gosh, where am I going to find someone to fill this role? That is the power of the opportunity, right? Hey, I have a resignation. They're going to seek other opportunities, or they decide they're going to leave education because they have another goal in life, another thing they want to really do, and that's okay. Take that time to process and go. Wow, this is a great opportunity for me to find someone that really wants to be a great educator and be a part of what we're building here. So don't take those things as a negative.
Principal JL:Think long-term. Invest your grow in your own educators. So these are things you want to think about. You want to move fast. You want to find good candidates. You don't want to mess around, so you want to make sure you bring in that quality candidate, get them on board as quickly as possible. If everything checks out, make sure you work ahead and do your pre-screens before your interview. So if you can offer offer right away and that's a strategy that you can use.
Principal JL:Be creative. If traditional methods aren't working, you're going to have to figure out other ways to do it. This landscape is changing all the time and you're going to have to stay on top of the trends and stay on top of what other people are doing. You need to network. You need to collaborate. That's why this podcast exists is to give you guys ideas. I would love to hear other ideas that you guys are doing that I have not even mentioned. I guarantee you there's things out there I don't even know about and if there are, I would love you guys to hit the fan mail button and really tell me what those things are that you guys have seen out there that I haven't even mentioned that other educators can do to help with their hiring and bringing on quality education.
Principal JL:And then the final thing is retention. Guys, you got to create a culture that keeps the teachers that you have and if you have a great school culture and climate to where it's inviting people want to be there. They want to be a part of it. They're excited to be there and them being excited to be there, they're going to tell other people about it and that's going to help your recruiting, because if those teachers and staff are excited to be there, they're going to tell their friends and their friends are going to be like you know what? I might want to come over there, because there's a lot of great things happening over there and I want to be a part of that. And so your teachers as well are some of your best recruiters, so don't forget about that. If best recruiters, so don't forget about that. If they love being there, they're going to tell other people, and word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways getting other people to come to your school district, and that has happened. I've had people tell me I've applied here because I've heard all the things that are happening and I really want to be a part of it. That's part of that branding and messaging right Is your teachers. If they're happy and love what they're doing and they're having positive experiences, they're going to tell others. So don't forget about that things. With that said, I want you guys to remember when you guys are hiring people, look at it as an opportunity to build the culture and climate of your building and bring in someone in that will fit that. So that's something really important to think about when you're hiring as well.
Principal JL:If you find this episode helpful, I love you guys to subscribe to the podcast. I love so you guys can get the episodes when they first hit. I would love for you to leave a review and I would love to hear from you as well by hitting that fan mail button to hear all the things that you guys liked about the episode and I like about the episode. All those things. I love to hear those things. I hope this episode resonated with you guys. Until next time, keep leading, keep innovating, make a difference out there and always be 1% better.
