SCHOOL COMMITTEE: Malden Public Schools seeking to proactively strengthen, enhance district’s workforce

Superintendent presents this and other Entry Findings at School Committee meeting this week

By Steve Freker

It had become a frequent criticism over the past several years, and the often heard lament has been, “What’s the big holdup?” The reference was to the Malden Public Schools’ speed and efficiency – or lack thereof – in advertising its open instructional positions for the next school year. The critique has been that the district took too long to post open positions for the following school year and, in so doing, limited both the number of candidates for those positions, as well as the quality of potential new hires for the Malden Public Schools (MPS).

First-year Malden Superintendent of Schools Dr. Timothy Sippel and Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Dr. Sarah McLaughlin essentially told the Malden School Committee Monday night that those days are over. At Monday’s meeting, Supt. Sippel shared his Entry Findings from the past nine months of listening sessions, in-community town halls, surveys and many in-person meetings at or about the seven Malden schools, with educators, administrators, other staff members, students, caregivers and other members of the community. Supt. Sippel told those at Monday’s meeting he had presented the Entry Findings at a well-attended Feedback Session with members of the public held at Malden High School last week.

On Monday he presented most of the same points and findings, one of the key listings being the “Six Areas for Collective Action,” namely:

—Affirming high expectations for all students

—Adapting instruction to meet diverse needs

—Ensuring fair access to opportunities

—Partnering with families effectively

—Nurturing a strong workforce within the district

—Building district strength and stability

Supt. Sippel said these core findings would guide him and his team moving forward as they continue to build collaborative relationships with everyone in the district, including educators, administrators, staff and caregivers.

“Our educators are our district’s most valuable resource. We must invest in them and attract new talent to our staff,” Supt. Sippel stated in his presentation. He also touched on retention of quality educators and staff: “We want our educators to stay in Malden and positively impact our students throughout their careers.”

According to Supt. Sippel, keys to district workforce support and enhancement will be: effective training and support; innovative recruitment; establishing and maintaining a collaborative, professional culture; and maintaining competitive compensation.

“We must have our workforce feel like they belong, that they are valued,” Supt. Sippel said.

The Malden Superintendent said that at his listening sessions across the district he has heard “again and again that there are concerns about too many unfilled positions [in the school district] and that we may be advertising our job openings too late and missing out on candidates. We are making adjustments to our practices to address these concerns.”

On the action point of “nurturing a strong workforce within the district,” Assistant Supt. McLaughlin provided some details of some of the proactive moves she and other staff have taken on behalf of the Superintendent and the MPS district to forge a new path toward strengthening and enhancing both the present and future corps of educators and other staff. Assistant Supt. McLaughlin said Human Resources is doing a “huge push” right now, this week with early job postings for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, which begins in late August. She said that 50 job postings are being made on the Malden SchoolSpring platform, which is accessible nationwide.

Included are retirements, vacant positions and highest needs positions, including English Learner (EL) and Special Education positions, she said. “This work of making sure we are filling every position is mission critical in terms of running an effective school system,” McLaughlin said.

“The best candidates are out there now. They are not waiting until the summer to seek new jobs and apply for positions,” Dr. McLaughlin told the School Committee. She said steps have also been taken to communicate better on the open positions, such as enhanced job descriptions, reason you should teach in Malden and additions and improvements to the MPS website (www.maldenps.org) to further this goal.

The Assistant Superintendent also explained how protocol now includes speedy response to inquiries made concerning MPS jobs: ”If someone makes an inquiry or submits an application and they do not hear back in a few days, they will move on.”

Dr. McLaughlin said she and the leadership team has also been proactive in recruitment. “We have to go to where people are who want jobs,” she said.

She said that just this past weekend she attended a large job fair in Brookline for prospective educators sponsored by the Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity in Education. “I looked around and I saw that Revere was there, Medford and all of our close neighbors. What I did hear is that Malden is one of the only districts that can offer jobs right now for next school year,” Dr. McLaughlin said. She said there was another similar job recruitment fair at Bridgewater State University coming up soon that she will attend and make sure Malden is represented.

She also said that she has already been in communications with various colleges and universities which educate prospective teachers to discuss Malden Public Schools job opportunities. Dr. McLaughlin also told of another innovation she and the MPS team has introduced to the hiring process where the “heavy lifting” of screening applicants and identifying candidates for interviews takes “some of that workload off of our administrators.” Additionally, she said, MPS has hired an independent consultant to assist in the recruitment of some of the positions that are “hardest to fill,” such as some EL and Special Education roles.

Speaking on the overall Entry Findings, Supt. Sippel said that on Tuesday, March 25, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., he and his team will be hosting another Feedback Session for caregivers of MPS students regarding the Entry Findings, and this session will be held virtually, via Zoom. Details will be provided districtwide, he said, and information would also be available on the MPS website (www.maldenps.org).

“We will be able to launch a strategic planning process later in the spring to forge both a short-term and long-term plan to address the six areas [of collective action] that have been discussed this evening,” Supt. Sippel said.