HR report: district says teacher turnover is below national benchmarks; Pivot evaluation platform in use

Tom presented the Kennewick School District’s annual human-resources report and told the board the district’s staffing expenditures account for roughly 85.1% of the total expenditure budget. He reviewed teacher counts (about 1,141) and said the district’s head count on the most recent count day was about 18,609 students.

Using cohort analysis for hires beginning in 2019–20, Tom compared district mover/leaver percentages against a cited national threshold of about 8 percent and said the district’s combined stayers and movers retention rate averages 96.9 percent—meaning the district is losing roughly 3 percent of teaching staff per year on average, compared with the national 8 percent benchmark. "We have a total retention rate of what I would call combined stairs and movers of 96.9%." he said.

Tom outlined recruitment tactics for roles that are hard to fill, including targeted outreach for speech-language pathologists, physical therapists and other specialists, and described the PAR (peer assistance and mentoring) program, which is partially state funded with local levy support. He also summarized an internship pathway (WEA/WSU partnership) intended to produce certified special-education teachers after a multi-year process.

On evaluation systems, Tom said the district uses multiple rubrics (Danielson for teachers, AWSP for building administrators, WASA for central office) and adopted the Pivot electronic evaluation platform last year. Pivot holds evaluative evidence and signatures and, Tom said, will be expanded to include classified staff next year; the district is using Pivot data for year-round observations and end-of-year evaluations.

Board members asked how specialists such as librarians and music teachers are evaluated; Tom said there are role-specific rubrics (about six total) embedded in Pivot and confirmed the evaluation cycle is ongoing throughout the year. Tom also said the district deployed its 2025 staff-value survey on Monday and that last year’s survey had more than 1,200 responses; the 2025 survey closes on April 24.