How it All Turned Out

It is my sincere hope and desire this will be my last blog post talking about COVID. Today, I want to just take a few minutes to provide some final data points about the number of cases, quarantines, and other observations about our health and safety protocols that were in place this year. While our Return to Learn page will remain active on our website for the time being, you may have noticed the matrix has been removed. However, if you are interested the complete data set with all data points visible, it can be viewed right here. 

The fact that we have largely moved on as a society, and in large degree as a school district isn't lost on anyone. Whenever I open the drive on my computer, the files that have been most consistently used are among the top of the list. Unsurprisingly, the data matrix that I so meticulously cultivated over the last year is beginning to gather dust. The last time it was open prior to opening it today for a point of reference was May 27th, almost a full month ago!

Final COVID data chart

The very first data point was entered on July 30, 2020 when we finalized our matrix after receiving guidelines from the Iowa Department of Education and in collaboration with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Black Hawk County Health Department. For the next 300 consecutive days, we would track 11 data points, rain or shine. While the matrix would evolve over the course of the school year, we would remain committed to providing our community with valid, reliable, and hopefully consistent information. The most significant evolution would come on October 30th when we started tracking the percentage of students absent for any COVID related reason. This would include those who were COVID positive, in quarantine, or in isolation while awaiting the results of a test. 

As you can see from the chart above, our high watermark occurred on November 11th when we had an absentee rate of 11.09%. This tracked pretty closely to the county positivity rate, which reached its high on November 14th with a 26.4% positivity rate. This was the closest we could come during the school year to changing our learning model. You can read more about the decision making that went on during this interlude right here. 

That's not to say we didn't have interruptions! You may recall our cross country season was briefly suspended due to a minor outbreak on that team. Interestingly enough, that team came back and captured the state title!  A positive case with exposure during an open gym caused a disruption of the boys basketball season right as they were getting ready to begin conditioning for the season (this probably explains to everyone why those teams all elected to wear face coverings for the first half of the season, both in practice and competition). Our wrestling season was also briefly interrupted right before the holidays. As you can see from the illustration above, we really began to improve after the holidays. 

In the final analysis, we had a total of 44 student cases of COVID. While it would be difficult to determine with certainty where the transmission of these cases occurred, based on our analysis of the data and investigation of those cases, it appears that only 6 of them may have happened while at school. Additionally, more than 95% of our cases were experienced in grades 7-12. 

There were 240 instances of a student being placed in quarantine. Unfortunately there were some students who had to be placed in quarantine more than once, so it is difficult to conclude without deeper analysis how many students were truly impacted. Of those placed in quarantine, 13.75% were exposed at school. The weak spots in our mitigation and safety plan were the lunch period and during our activity program, which was where those exposures occurred. When cross referencing those exposed at school to COVID positive cases, my analysis reveals only 5 cases that may have occurred as a direct result of exposure at school. 

An interesting observation that came about as a result of this analysis was a decrease in other seasonal illnesses, which we can likely attribute to our health and safety plan. in 2020-2021, we had 0 reported cases of influenza, compared with 30 in the 2019-2020 school year. While we had 37 cases of strep reported during the 2020-2021 school year, that compares to 74 in the 2019-2020 school year. 

So, is is over? Well as a reminder, I'm not that kind of doctor so not equipped to make that determination. However, I am equipped to recommend you get vaccinated if you haven't done so already!

From Candidate to Employee

Hiring season at Hudson has been quite a bit busier than normal and the building administrators have had their hands full this spring. We are always sad to see our employees move on and wish them all well in their future endeavors. Unfortunately turnover is a part of normal operations in any organization as people move on to new challenges, retirement, or opt to stay home with young children. The quirk in schools though, is that the bulk of our hiring is done during the spring and early summer; whereas in other industries, hiring tends to not be compressed into such a small window. Today's missive is designed to give our community a peak behind the curtain as to how our hiring process works, as well as to offer some advice to those would be job seekers. 

Technically speaking, the Board of Directors has the ultimate responsibility for the hiring of personnel. The boards role then is to complete the legal process of the hire and authorize the issuance of a contract based on a recommendation from the administration. If you have ever looked at our board agenda, you'll notice a standing agenda item for our meetings: 5.3 Approve Consent Personnel. This includes appointments of new personnel and resignations, which are handled as a class action each month. From a practical standpoint, the hiring of personnel in Hudson is delegated to the superintendent, who in turn delegates it to a hiring agent. In our case this is the administrator or department head who will be tasked with supervising the employee on a day to day basis.

Once a position has been vacated, the administrator and I will typically meet to discuss the vacancy and determine whether or not it truly needs to be filled and if any restructuring should be considered. We'll discuss desired qualifications and I'll provide some guardrails before authorizing the posting. In the majority of cases I'm not involved in the interviewing of candidates and leave that to the building administrator and team of teachers who will be working with the employee. I'll re-enter the hiring process at the tail end right before the administrator is prepared to make the offer of employment and give final approval for the hire. 

The process begins with the development of the pool. Exactly what is it that we are looking for? That is going to be clarified in the posting, which not only will include the specifics of the vacancy being filled, but the endorsements that are legally necessary, as well as those that are desired. Preferred endorsements are typically used as a primary screener when sorting out which candidates are deemed 'viable' for closer scrutiny. Here's a tip for those would be candidates for elementary teaching jobs at Hudson: a literacy endorsement is considered the 'gold standard' for ensuring your application gets a closer look when it crosses the principals desk. 

Generally speaking, an elementary teaching position is going to attract a lot more candidates than a high school teaching position. Consider this: We recently had a pool for an elementary position that garnered 86 applicants before ultimately being filled. In roughly the same time period, a high school teaching position had a pool with 19 candidates. Keep in mind this isn't an anomaly, but rather the norm. It is also worth pointing out that the more specialized a position is the smaller the pool will be; and we do have a number of specialized positions that attract less than a handful of qualified applicants.

For those who make the cut and are invited to an interview, I would strongly recommend you take some time and familiarize yourself with the school district. It would be wise to understand what that district values, the current initiatives the district is engaged with, and a generalized understanding of the community. In a recent interview for our music positions (I do sit in on those because of my background) I was impressed when a candidate went into detail about how they had learned about the history of our jazz program and offered specifics about how they envisioned taking the program to the next level. I was less impressed when a candidate for the same job told me that he knew we had high test scores because he looked up our report card and saw that we were designated 'High Performing'. While both statements were true can you guess which one was hired?

Typically reference checking is done once we are very close to making the offer of employment. While there is usually some reference checking that is done in advance of the interview, a much deeper dive will happen after the interview is completed. This is a signal that we are pretty serious about the candidate. I think it is also fair to point out that we are astute enough to realize that the references that are listed on the resume are going to provide a positive endorsement. That is why we also take the time to look for other reference sources. And my favorite interview question: What will we find if we Google your name?

Finally I want to discuss the value of an advanced degree and how that factors into the hiring process. One might think an advanced degree automatically gives the candidate a leg up on the competition. That is largely a myth. However, endorsements that provide the district (and employee) with flexibility in assignment are very valuable. 

We do still have some great positions open for the 2021-2022 school year. You can view those postings here.