Frontline Blog

As we get into the swing of another school year, it is useful to ask ourselves: what is our true work as K-12 HR Leaders? Is it to process I-9s? To ensure compliance with FLSA? To attend job fairs, manage position control, and ensure there's a substitute in every classroom every day? As you all know, the answer is "Yes." Yes, to all of the above, and yes to so much more. There is no shortage of tasks that the HR office must do to ensure that it meets its two most basic functions – which are to ensure the district's compliance with employment law and to ensure that positions are filled. But there is a deeper ideal, a more salient reason why we exist - and that is to ensure that every child has an outstanding educator in front of them, every day. And because each school district employee is, at any given moment, an educator – we must not lose sight that our most important responsibility is to ensure excellence in every single hire we make and to unabashedly address performance concerns when they arise. Let's talk today about the first of these two important callings: to ensure that each hire we make is a quality hire.