BVSD – Boulder Valley School District

Boulder Valley School District employs 4,300 employees.  Almost half of our employees are teachers and the other half serve the district in departments such as food service, transportation, maintenance, business services and curriculum and instruction.  Hiring takes place throughout the year, yet summer and fall are two seasons in which we welcome the largest number of new employees.  The Educator Pipeline Priority Action Team’s primary goal is to attract, recruit, hire and retain the most qualified candidates for each position within BVSD.  Once new employees are hired, BVSDwants to provide an onboarding experience that not only welcomes new employees but provides them the necessary training to be successful in their new position.  During the 15-16 school year, the Educator Pipeline team focused on evaluating and refining the onboarding process for teachers and administrators. The scope of this work will extend to classified employee groups during the 16-17 school year.  Highlighted below are two successful onboarding programs that will serve as models for our future work.

New Educator Orientation

All new licensed teachers and special service providers are brought together for two and a half days days of onboarding training in August each year.  This year, the IT department gave each teacher a new Chromebook and provided training on how to use technology to foster learning in their classroom.  New hires also spent two days with district curriculum directors exploring their curriculum and becoming familiar with the essential learning objectives for the courses they will teach this year.

Office Professional Orientation

The Boulder Valley Educational Office Professionals (BVEOP) has been working for the past three years to develop a comprehensive onboarding program.  This August, the district provided a half-day training for all new office professionals, whether new to BVSD or new to their position.  An office professional mentor is assigned to each new hire and can provide up to 7 hours of one on one training that address specific individual needs.  Each new hire is also assigned a “buddy” to help them navigate their new position.  The buddy is someone in their same role and can help answer questions and guide new hires to the correct resources.  This support is in addition to the three professional development opportunities provided throughout the school year.

By Melissa Ribordy, Human Resources Director, Jerry Anderson, PhD, Principal, Monarch High School and Barbara Kase, President, Boulder Valley Paraeducators Association
Tri-chairs, Educator Pipeline Priority Action Team

Tags: employees, hiring, professional development, talent