Great Falls Public Schools is hosting a job fair this week.
GFPS human resources representatives will be at Paris Gibson Education Center 3-5 p.m. Oct. 23 to answer questions and assist in applying. They’ll be hiring on the spot, pending background checks and references.
Applicants are asked to fill out an application on the GFPS website prior to attending.
The district, like many other area businesses, has been struggling with staff recruitment and retention.
During a Sept. 23 school board meeting, GFPS officials reviewed their staffing trends and efforts to recruit and retain employees during their Sept. 23 meeting.
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Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ human resources director, said that the district is the third largest employer in the city behind Malmstrom Air Force Base and Benefis Health System.
He said the district currently employs 1,903 staff members supporting 21 schools and 10,000 students, but the number of employees fluctuates throughout the year due to turnover.
Roughly 85 percent of the district’s budget is spent on personnel annually, Diekhans said.
To learn, students need clean buildings, food to eat, working technology, safe playgrounds, sidewalks cleared of snow and more, he said.
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“The ability to adequately staff our schools will continue to be challenging in the future. Fewer students are graduating from college and going into the field of education; therefore, the district needs to be even more active and aggressive in our hiring and retention strategies. In addition, the private sector is very actively recruiting qualified individuals to fill positions within their organizations,” Diekhans wrote in his agenda report.
Diekhans told the school board that there’s some fear with the coming Sentinel project at Malmstrom Air Force Base, that they’ll poach some GFPS employees.
“That’s a wait and see,” he said.
He told the board that the district has used new strategies for recruitment over the last four years, including improving the website, hosting multiple job fairs, sourcing resumes from career sites, increased social media advertising, and hosting the High Voltage Weekend in Great Falls for teacher candidates.
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Over the last three years, GFPS has hosted events for new teachers in Missoula and Bozeman through federal COVID relief dollars, which are no longer available but the district is planning to continue those events but on a smaller scale.
The district had been able to increase its investment in recruitment with those one-time federal funds, but as those run out, they have to find alternative methods of attracting employees, Diekhans said.
Last year was the district’s first year using digital marketing and advertising outside of the area, he said, as many don’t see or hear television and radio commercials.
The high voltage weekend had about 40 participants over the last year and of those, 23 or 24 were eligible to be hired this year, and the district offered positions to 16, he said.
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Dinners on us events at the universities can be challenging, Diekhans said, since students often have jobs on top of their academics, so they’ve also tried taking donuts into education classrooms, but students are also studying remotely.
Diekhans said the district works with the Montana Office of Public Instruction to ensure accreditation standards through traditional licensure, internships, provisional licensure and emergency licensing.
Diekhans said their recruitment efforts are paying off, but turnover shows they need to keep focusing on recruitment and retention strategies for future years.
In looking at turnover, the district has traditionally looked at numbers year to year, but Diekhans said he was now looking at five-year averages to get a better idea of the trends, which were skewed over the last five years due to COVID.
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For the 2023-2024 school year, the district had:
- 55 retirements, of those 25 were teachers, three engineers/custodians/crafts/grounds, one teacher aide, two food service, three exempt secretaries, one medically related personnel and psychologist, two warehouse and 18 miscellaneous staff
- 242 resignations, of those 45 were teachers, 24 engineers/custodians/crafts/grounds, 37 teacher aides, 51 paraeducators, 17 food service, eight clerical, six exempt secretaries, four data center, one warehouse and 49 miscellaneous staff
- 14 termination
Since July 1 to Sept. 23, Diekhans said the district had hired:
- 64 teachers
- three in administration
- 11 clerical
- 23 paraeducators
- 26 aides
- six engineers
- 11 food service
Despite those new hires, he said the district still had openings, as of Sept. 23:
- 60 teacher aides
- eight food services
- nine custodians
- 20 special education paraeducators
- six special education teachers
- four intervention teachers
- six elementary classrooms condensed
- two counselors
Diekhans said the district has made efforts to improve retention, such as recognition programs, exit interviews and year-round social events for new teachers.
“Overall, the district must continue to be creative in its recruiting and retention efforts, while facing the same challenges as other industries across the state, such as affordable housing and childcare,” he wrote in his agenda report.
