LAUSD reports it successfully filled identified vacancies

Los Angeles Unified has filled 98% of the vacant teaching positions it identified earlier this month. LAUSD has redeployed staff to 416 classrooms who will remain in the classroom through the end of the school year.

The largest number of vacancies were found across the highest-need middle and high schools. Those schools, along with highest-need elementary schools and special education programs, were prioritized, chief of human resources Ileana Davalos told attendees at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“I’m very overjoyed,” board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said at the meeting. “You know, staffing has been a concern of mine since last year’s budget approval in June, and so super grateful for the team to make some quick strategic moves to fill our classroom vacancies this year.”

Local districts took the lead on redeployment. Staff who could be reassigned within the same school were deployed first, followed by those reassigned within the same local district and then those redeployed from the central office, according to Davalos. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that once positions are backfilled, staff members will be released back to their positions — hopefully by the start of the upcoming school year.

“I know it’s inconvenient for some and I appreciate, much like the gratitude the board has expressed for the many individuals — the 400 plus individuals — who were redeployed to schools,” Carvalho said at the meeting.

LAUSD is now looking to hire for those temporarily filled positions for next year. The goal is to start the school year without vacancies, said Bryan Johnson, the director of certificated workforce management. The district is most in need of secondary math and science teachers, special education teachers and bilingual teachers, he said.

The human resources department will be hosting hiring fairs throughout the next two weeks and has a growing number of early offers and individuals on the eligibility list, Davalos said. So far this year, the district has hired 2,400 teachers, up from last year. The department is increasing its interviewing capacity and working with local universities to support the backfill of vacancies, Johnson added.

“The candidate of today is not the same candidate that I was when I came to this system, so we really have to adjust — candidates have a lot of choices,” Davalos said. “We have to dig a little bit deeper as to why that is happening and what can we do to have staff come here.”