ANSWER:

The teacher staffing team in the Department of Certification and Staffing, Office of Human Resources and Development (OHRD) has been restructured to align with the area assignments within the Office of School Support and Improvement. Each school has one staffer for Montgomery County Education Association positions and one staffer for the Service Employees International Union Local 500 positions. This model helps to increase OHRD’s knowledge of the human capital needs and instructional focus of the school to make adequate matches and recommendations for employees.

Managing human capital at system and work-site levels begins with strategic recruitment efforts.  OHRD collaborates with the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs’ (OCIP) World Languages supervisor and the instructional team to maintain a better understanding of the instructional needs and offerings for world languages in MCPS for Grades K–12.  OHRD staff also has completed classroom observations of world languages classrooms and served on elementary language immersion committees to expand their understanding of world languages instruction at all levels.

OCIP’s World Languages staff serve as active ambassadors at external and internal recruitment events. They also complete interviews of world language applicants. Having the World Languages staff actively involved in the prescreening interview process increases the ability to find highly qualified staff and OHRD’s ability to match staff to schools based on their intimate knowledge of each school’s world language program.

In addition, OHRD hosts two internal recruitment events which focus on current MCPS employees who speak French, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish and/or are certified in these areas. The purpose of these events is to provide current employees with information about the elementary language immersion programs, as well as the secondary language programs with the intent of having these employees consider world language teaching positions.

Last year, MCPS broadened its recruitment efforts to include Puerto Rico in an effort to provide opportunities for educators who teach in a bilingual environment and bring their expertise to MCPS. To support the retention of these employees, OHRD communicates with these employees monthly, sets up and participates in networking activities, includes them as active participants to support the next year’s recruitment efforts in Puerto Rico, and monitors their performance and development as an MCPS educator.