An urban district of 10,000+ students contracts an effective staffing program for its instructional and non-instructional staff.
The Consolidated School District of New Britain serves New Britain, CT, a city of about 70,000 residents located just southwest of Hartford. The district is home to more than 10,000 students—attending one high school, four middle schools, and ten elementary schools.
The district has been partnering with Kelly® Education since 2003 to help resolve many of its ongoing challenges as an urban school system with a culturally diverse student body.
The challenge.
In 2001, the Consolidated School District of New Britain (CSDNB) program for managing its substitute teachers was decentralized, inconsistent, and inefficient. Placement rates across the school system were as low as 65 percent. With no automated scheduling technology in place, the district had limited access to its incumbent substitute placement service, from just 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. each day, and no capacity for longer-term planning. Plagued by a lack of quality candidates, the program didn’t provide screening and training of its substitute teachers, and didn’t monitor any of their performance.
As an urban school district, CSDNB is marked by many distinguishing challenges such as more frequent student mobility; larger concentrations of immigrant populations; greater racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity; and higher concentrations of student poverty. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of students across the district qualify as minorities, and 44 percent come from homes where English is not the primary language. There are 38 separate languages spoken in the New Britain area.
The district was faced with increasing cost for its teachers, combined with increasing complaints about the quality and behavior of its substitute workforce. And because CSDNB is situated in Connecticut, where a four-year degree is required of substitute teachers, recruiters were constantly challenged to attract and retain a qualified pool. Many classrooms were left consistently without a substitute.
Since implementing the Kelly Education solution, substitute teacher placement rates have risen and remained at about 95 percent in recent years. This improvement translates into cost savings."
- New Britain School District
The solution.
CSDNB partnered with Kelly Education to deploy a comprehensive substitute teacher management program. The solution features an automated scheduling and absence management system with 24/7 web-based access for teachers, substitute teachers, and school administrators. The technology delivers real-time reporting in a customized, in-depth, easy-to-view interface that includes reasons for teacher absenteeism as well as other important data, helping the district to identify work pattern trends and develop better forecasting.
Kelly Education customized recruiting plans that helped the district to retain higher quality candidates. The solution also includes year-round recruitment of new substitute teachers to maintain a larger, more effective pool for New Britain schools. Kelly Education provides up to 130 substitute teachers on peak days, and an average of 75 substitute teachers daily across the district.
All new candidates are screened centrally for experience and credentials, then thoroughly oriented and trained with school handbooks customized with information from the district. Kelly Education then follows up regularly with on-site visits to each school, providing feedback and monitoring of substitute teacher performance. The program has expanded beyond instructional staff for the district to include paraprofessionals, office/clerical staff, and teaching personnel for its adult education classes.
The result.
Since implementing the Kelly Education solution, substitute teacher placement rates have risen and remained at about 95 percent in recent years. This improvement translates into cost savings, since the district no longer pays class-coverage payments to paraprofessionals or extra-duty payments for teachers to fill those classes.
Access to computerized reporting systems by the New Britain schools’ teachers, principals, and HR staff has allowed for much better long- and short-term planning. More centralized control and monitoring of the entire CSDNB program has led to vastly improved data and insight. Absence tracking includes daily and weekly reporting of teacher absences, customized by teacher, school, reason, and day of the week. This visibility has led to decreased teacher absenteeism, more consistency in educating students, and ultimately, to a reduction in overall spending for its substitute teacher program.
As one New Britain school administrator asserted, “CSDNB has not been able to recruit and retain substitute teachers that are as qualified, committed, trained, and reliable as those provided by Kelly.” New candidates for both instructional and non-instructional personnel positions are of such a consistently high quality that in years of greater hiring needs, the district has hired up to 35 percent of its new full-time personnel from the Kelly Education substitute teacher pool. This has led to efficiencies which have delivered other significant cost advantages to the district.
Additionally, the CSDNB isn’t burdened with workers’ compensation charges, unemployment compensation costs, payroll processing, or other employment taxes—everything is handled by Kelly Education. And the dismissal of staff members who don’t fit the culture of the district is made easier, with less liability for CSDNB.
Article commissioned by Kelly Education and written by District Administration.
You need the best and brightest.
We can help solve your most complex talent challenges – both today and in the future – by delivering high–quality talent that moves education forward.
Contact us at 800.Kelly.01 and one of our agents will administer your request. Or, if you'd prefer, fill out the form to submit an email.