Aurora Public Schools

Human Resources offers support on how to successfully recruit quality candidates, to include applicant selection processes, selecting appropriate interview committees, and sample interview questions.

• At-A-Glance Recruitment and Selection-There is no one definition of "best" candidate to hire, the match is essential. Without the right "match" you will be replacing the individual(s) the following year. Recruitment and selection activities should align to your needs and context and be developed by your diverse hiring team.  The school based hiring process consists of two closely related components:

  • Recruitment: building a broad and high potential pool of candidates ready to meet your school's/site's needs

  • Selection: assessing the "best fit" individual(s) from the pool that match your school's/site's needs

• Tips for an Effective Selection Committee- This tool provides tips to consider as you create and implement a selection committee for hiring at the school-level.  Teams can use this as they create a new committee or to assess the functioning of a current committee.

• Scorecard- Teacher Position- This template provides a sample scorecard for the role of a teacher based on the book Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. This template can be customized for each particular vacancy by subject, grade-level, school needs, etc.

• Teacher Interview Questions- This tool provides sample questions school-based selection teams can use in hiring.  Each question is aligned to a particular competency or skill area that may be of importance to the hiring team. We recommend each selection team first identify the TOP competencies or skill areas that are most needed for a role and then choose from the appropriate questions. 

• Sample Interview Questions- Sample Interview Questions are broken down into categories to help assist supervisors in developing an list of questions that fit their school and ideal candidate

Retaining a quality staff is important when it comes to staff morale, knowledge and teamwork and in schools retention is also just as important to student success when we can offer them the most skilled staff to support their needs.

What is Retention

• Retention- the rate that all employees stay or remain in the district or school
• Strategic Retention- keeping top performers while simultaneously removing the weakest performers
• Attrition or "Leavers"-  Rate at which employees leave (resignations, retirements, terminations, etc.) the district or teaching altogether ("Leavers")
• Migration or "Movers"- rate at which employees move to jobs in other schools/offices within the district ("Movers")
• Turnover- Includes both attrition and migration

Why is Retention Important

• Top educators produce stronger gains for students
  • Top teachers produce 5 to 6 more months of learning per year
  • Top principals generate 2 to 7 more months of student learning gains
• Low performers don't always opt out
  • Most ineffective teachers had 9+ years of experience and planned to stay for another decade
• More effective teachers are available to hire
  • 75% chance of replacing an ineffective teacher with more effective one
• Turnover is expensive
  • $1-2 billion/year nationally in attrition costs

Retention Toolkits

• Principal Toolkit for Talent Acquisition and Retention- This tool lists information to consider as you review your teacher talent retention goals.
• Human Capital Actions- Retaining Effective Teachers- This toolkit lists important actions that Principals should take related to the retention of effective teachers.
• Irreplaceable Employee Template- Use the template to identify your high performing, irreplaceable teachers.
• Human Resources Support for Strategic Retention- A list of support that is offered from your Human Resources Director.  Contact your Director for further support

The following training materials have been provided to help answer your questions, provide required documents and offer helpful scenarios.  Please continue to communicate with your HR Director if you should have any questions or need additional support.

• ADA Training- This training will provide you with an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the accommodation process. 

• Employee Conduct- The purpose of this training is to better define the Director's role versus the Supervisor's role when it comes to employee conduct and discipline.  You will also find support on the process that takes place to include documents and scenarios. 

• Evaluation: Classified and Administrative- Find the required forms, policies and step by step instructions on how to evaluate Classified and Administrative employees to ensure that you are evaluating thoughtfully and thoroughly to increase employee performance. 

• Hiring from a Human Capital Perspective- Learn how to hire from a human capital perspective, discovering strategies in hiring practices to find the best fit for your site.

• Hiring Classified and Licensed Employees- Get  step by step hiring instructions from posting to hire,  for Classified and Licensed employees from

• Investigations- Step by step instructions on how to conduct an investigation, including interview procedures, what to document and when to involve law enforcement. 

• Mutual Consent-By definition, mutual consent is the process in which teaching positions are filled at schools based upon the agreement of both the teacher and the principal (with input from at least two other teachers at the school) that the teacher and the school are a good match that aligns well with the teacher’s qualifications, experience, and demonstrated effectiveness. 

• Overage and Placement: Classified Employees- Learning how to determine who is an overage and how the placement process works. Understand who is involved, the process from overage to placement and considerations that must be made. 

• Approaches to Staff Reductions- Get an understanding of probationary v. non-probationary,  overages, mutual consent and the different types of staff reductions and how  examples of  each scenario. 

• Understanding the Master Agreement- The following documents walks through the Master Agreement highlighting information to help get a better understanding of what it really means.