Shawnee Mission has launched a pilot pay incentive program aimed at attracting and retaining paraeducators and custodians at a time when the district is struggling to fill those positions.
The upshot: Shawnee Mission’s Board of Education last week unanimously approved spending more than half a million dollars on the program, which is aimed at addressing staffing shortages for classified, or non-teacher, staff.
- The program is aimed at classroom paraeducators and second shift custodians, positions that board documents say are historically “the hardest to fill and the hardest to retain.”
State of play: Shawnee Mission officially launched the pilot program — which has a total potential cost of $600,436 — on Tuesday, Oct. 25 and it is set to end on June 30, 2023.
- Superintendent Michelle Hubbard told the board at its Oct. 24 meeting that there are currently more than 150 paraeducator and second shift custodian vacancies in the district.
Program details: The bonuses will be directed at certain classified staff, according to board documents.
- New center-based paraeducators — those that typically work with students who have special needs — will receive a $300 signing bonus.
- Other paraeducators, including those who work with pre-kindergarten students, will receive a $150 signing bonus.
- New custodians who work shifts outside of normal school hours will get a $300 bonus,
- New paraeducators and custodians will receive up to $300 retention payments for every 30 days they work after they initially sign on with the district.
- The retention payments will be available starting on Dec. 12, and it will “be paid on the next available bi-weekly check,” according to board documents.
Key quote: “We really need people to be at work and helping and supporting our kids and teachers and just the building as a whole,” Hubbard said. “We are hopeful that this will give us some employees in those really hard to fill areas.”
More pay incentives possible
This isn’t the first effort Shawnee Mission could make in order to to attract and retain paraeducators.
- Shawnee Mission approved an agreement with local staffing agency Kelly Services to address the ongoing paraeducator shortage.
- Hubbard told the school board that district administration plans to bring forward a referral incentive proposal in November or December.
- Hubbard said referrals are where a majority of new hires are coming from, not from people applying for open positions on websites.
- District administration is still doing research on this, though, she said.
