The Lee County School District continues its efforts in recruiting minority employees for administrator, instructional and non-instructional positions with 147 minority personnel hired for fiscal year 2012 so far.

Among minority classifications, the district has hired one Asian, two African Americans, one Hispanic and one white administrator. In addition, eight Asian, 27 African American, 24 Hispanic one American Indian or Alaskan Indian and 358 non-minority classification, or Caucasian, instructional employees were new hires for the fiscal year 2012. For the non-instruction new hires of 2012, the district brought minority classifications that consist of one Asian, 40 African Americans, 40 Hispanics, two American Indian or Alaskan Native as well as 125 non-minority classification employees.

Jennifer Pincoski, teacher on assignment for recruitment and retention said they have a committee working on recruitment efforts for internal employees and external applicants.

She said they identify external applicants by running a monthly query to catch minority applicants with TI scores of a 73 or higher because that is the district’s average. If the applicants express an interest, Pincoski said their information is then forwarded to a certification analyst, which decreases the list of candidates because not everyone who applies has the correct credentials.

Once the applicants are identified they are contacted on a weekly basis about potential job matches.

The applicant is taken off of the contact list if he or she is hired into a position, did not respond to two or more contact attempts from personnel, did not respond to communication attempts from hiring manager or the district received poor feedback concerning the applicant.

Pincoski said once the applicant goes through the process they are then linked to the positions they requested.

The site Sharepoint, which the district uses to allow principals, assistant principals and personnel specialties to view the applicant’s information, is updated every Friday. The information posted includes their name, credentials, contact information and linked postings.

Ranice Monroe, professional standards and equity director shared information regarding minority recruitment with internal candidates to the school board Tuesday afternoon. She said the majority of the internal candidates are employed by the district and are looking to advance their careers from support staff to teachers and from teachers to administrators.

“They are aspiring to be teachers and administrators,” Monroe said.

She said they have some great success stories of internal candidates who moved up in their career. One of those stories includes an employee who began working in the district as a bus driver. That employee is now a teacher.

Dr. Greg Adkins, chief human resource officer said they will continue to engage community groups in an effort to funnel minority applicants in the district’s direction.

“We are here to help,” he said, adding that it has been neat to see these people finally have someone to help them in the process.