Mike Loitz, Human Resource Director, Douglas County School District, Colorado
On this episode of The 3rd Question we talk with Mike Loitz, Human Resource Director, Douglas County School District, Colorado as he discusses the challenges of running a school district during COVID - keeping teachers happy, students healthy and so much more.
Video Transcript
Ryan James:
Hello and welcome to The 3rd Question, a video interview series with public sector thought leaders from around the country. And we are now in season two here in 2021. We appreciate all our viewers who've been joining us over the last six months. Today, I am joined by Mike Loitz. He is the HR director for Douglas County School District in Colorado. Mike, thank you for joining us today.
Mike Loitz:
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
Ryan James:
So before we get into the three questions, I guess first I'd love if you could just introduce yourself, maybe give us a little bit more information your background, and a little bit about Douglas County School District.
Mike Loitz:
Sure. My name, Mike Loitz and I've been in education now 21 years. I taught for two years in Illinois and then I came here to Douglas County in Colorado. I was a teacher and then I moved into assistant principal role then a principal role. And now I've been in HR for six years.
Douglas County, it's the third largest school district in the state of Colorado. We have 68,000 students. If you count our charter schools, were around 90 schools. Take charter schools out, were around 70, 72 public schools. And yeah, we're in the South Denver Metro area.
Ryan James:
Awesome. Well, let's get into these three questions. My first question is, we are in and have been in one of the most unlikely school years ever. 2020 has been a year I think a lot of us would tend to want to forget in a lot of ways. But from an HR perspective and from an education perspective, what have been some of the biggest challenges that you've had for your school district in equipping, training your teachers, your staff, your students, and keeping them safe, I guess, obviously, the primary thing as the school year started, and now, as it's been going on?
Mike Loitz:
Some of the challenges we, like every school district, had to make some quick shifts around where we stay in remote or are we going to hybrid, going back full, as well as e-learning. We had families who wanted full online learning. We basically built an e-learning school, an entire school district, if you will, high school, middle school elementary, within about a two week timeframe. So that was our first challenge.
Mike Loitz:
And then we were trying to fill it with our ADA people. We have people who have ADA requests who couldn't be exposed, so trying to work through all those. We literally have one ADA manager. We probably deal with about 10 to 15 cases a month. By the time school started, we had 850 requests.
Ryan James:
Wow.
Mike Loitz:
So we were just ramping up in HR, all hands on deck. But the biggest challenge about keeping people safe is really working with the public. We don't have a closed system. I don't have a factory where I can put up certain plexiglass to keep somebody safe. I'm dealing with the public. And so, when schools are coming in, we do have plexiglass, we're wearing masks, we're doing hand sanitizers, we're doing social distancing, but we're also dealing with kids. And we have the little kindergartner who doesn't understand why they can't hug their friend or hug their teacher. And then we have the 16-year-olds, 15, 16, 17-year-olds who really don't care what we tell them, and they're going to do their own thing.
Mike Loitz:
On top of that, we can't control what they do on their own time. And so, we've had some issues going on. The biggest challenge we have is working with the public and educating them and letting them know that even if maybe their opinions differ, we're following government guidelines, and this is the best we can do to keep kids and staff safe.
Ryan James:
So let me follow up with that, specifically around your staff. Obviously, this pandemic has affected everybody, but how about around the retention of teachers and even the recruitment, from an HR perspective, recruiting teachers based on what's going on today?
Mike Loitz:
Yeah, so the retentions, I'll just be honest. It's been pretty terrible. About three weeks ago, we had a teacher who's worked with us 20 plus years, into her sixties, walked in the principal's office, said, "I'm retiring. I talked to the state system, I can retire. I'm retiring at the end of the month." And walked out the door. And I called her. I said, "Hey, we'll give you personal leave if you need it" just because it's really hard to fill positions. She's a Spanish teacher. And she just said, "I'm done." This is been the straw that broke the camel's back.
Mike Loitz:
And I'd like to say that that's a unique story, but it's not. And we've had people resign. We've had people look for other careers. We've had people retire.
Ryan James:
Right.
Mike Loitz:
And so, it's been a shift in the workforce. Recruitment wise, it's been interesting. Obviously, the recruitment mentality we have of going out to job fairs and such has shifted. It's more virtual. I mean, we're using, with quarantines and stuff, we are averaging about 180 subs a day on top of adding an entire e-learning school system, which was about another 180 teachers on top of the ones that are walking out the door. There's a teacher shortage as it is.
Ryan James:
Right.
Mike Loitz:
And it's just not there. We're hoping at the end of this, that the virtual stuff will help some of our recruitment and that we'll be able to get back to a normal system and maybe enhance our system with these virtual options that we have now.
Ryan James:
Well, yeah, I know even before the pandemic, recruiting quality teachers and being competitive in the marketplace was a challenge. I mean, state by state is different, right, because of cost of living and salaries and all the different things that come together with that. I've heard that for years, is the recruitment challenge of good teachers. This just adds a whole other level to it.
Mike Loitz:
Well, yeah, and let me just add this. I just got a nice study handed to me, because I'm in charge of recruitment. And Colorado is not last in the nation. We are 50 out of 51, because the District of Columbia is in the study. So the study compares our salaries compared to the cost of living. And so, if you want to be a teacher, go to Iowa. They're in the top five. Colorado is 50 out of 51. I think only Virginia was below us. So that just adds to our recruitment issues.
Ryan James:
Right. Well, listen, let's go on to the next one. So as I talk to your peers, because I've talked to a lot of thought leaders on the K-12 side, I often hear about the challenges of engaging a pretty diverse workforce. You talk about the 60-year-old, who's walking out the door with early retirement, down to these brand new people that are coming in that are probably in their mid to early twenties. That diversity crosses four to five generations that are still in it, in the public sector workspace, and really in every kind of vertical.
Ryan James:
But what has your organization done to address that challenge, especially when it comes to technology? That's what I'm always curious about, because I know what it's like trying to tell my dad or teach my dad how to do a thing when my six-year-old picks it up right away. There are similar challenges on the technology side with multiple generations. That and budgets now are tighter than ever which also provides a challenge. So how have you guys faced that?
Mike Loitz:
Well, we're very site-based. So we really count on our schools. They get the money to do whatever they need. And probably the reason we're site-based is because one school could have low reading scores and need to focus their professional development on reading. Another one could be math. We were in the middle of part of a recruitment plan, we were in a strategic plan. Recruitment was supposed to be coming up in another year two. We were going to write a recruitment plan and we're really looking at what we call cradle to grave. So what's the experience in Douglas County School District from the day you're hired to the day you retire? And we would look through that whole continuum.
Mike Loitz:
Now, I think in the teaching world, when people think school district, they think teachers. And so, in the teaching world at the end of the day, again, it's on the school, but we're teaching the kids of today's generation, so you can't be a good teacher who's gone through 25 years of teaching and not learned what the kids need today.
Ryan James:
Right.
Mike Loitz:
Because it's just different in that sense. Now, do they exist? Absolutely. And I would really hope that those principals are evaluating properly, training properly. There are some good studies, and I know that when I was at a building, we implemented this in our building, around what teachers in year one to three need versus four to eight and up the scale there. Especially with the burnout rate, because if you don't provide proper training and you don't give them the proper support in that one to three, that year three has one of the highest burnouts, and the next one is year seven for teachers. That's when they walk away from the profession. So you really want to look at those things.
Mike Loitz:
And so, systematically, we were starting to work a strategic plan, but we got shut down. But really, I don't see the gap as much. Now, we do see it in maybe our maintenance offices or in some of those other areas. But in teaching, you don't see the gap, because if you still have a teacher who refuses to use a computer, who only does worksheets, the parents will run them out of town. Because to do your job well, it's not about, "Well, in my time we didn't." No, no, no. You're teaching kids in this time.
Ryan James:
Are you trying to mimic that same technology line, that the teachers are going to the student, that you are from HR to the teacher? Does that make sense?
Mike Loitz:
Yeah. You know what? It does make sense. And I think in a school system, at least in ours, a school system as large as ours, I think it is more organic than what people might think, because the parents and kids are demanding a certain level from the teachers.
Ryan James:
Right.
Mike Loitz:
They're demanding access to a website or emails or whatever. Then what happens is, then the teachers in the building start to demand it of us, going, "Well, wait. To do my job properly, I have to teach these kids this way. Why are you making me do it a different way?"
Ryan James:
Right.
Mike Loitz:
And so, it's almost an organic, ground up approach in some of that. I mean, I can say, it does exist, but I don't believe, at least in my experience at our school system, it goes the opposite direction.
Ryan James:
Wow. I like that. That's a good way of thinking about it that way, or at least experiencing it that way. This season two of The 3rd Question, we've changed the last question. So I'm going to throw it at you and see what your response is like. Obviously, you've been working in public education for a number of years now. So if I gave you a blank check and you were able to fund any part of your organization from an HR perspective, because that's your world, what would you fund it with? Blank check. What would it be and why?
Mike Loitz:
Oh boy. Yeah. I can go in so many different angles, but if I take my principal teaching hat off and just focus on, if I really just focus on the HR perspective.
First of all, when you get the school districts, everybody looks at the central admin. That's where the cuts are. Most of it came out of our offices, because people don't want bigger class sizes. You understand that.
Ryan James:
Right. Right. Okay. That's a great answer. I appreciate that. And I think it's definitely something that is, right now with budgets being what they are, with federal funding, with state funding, all the different aspects that are being cut back, I've seen how it's affected, obviously, on the municipal side public sector, but I've also seen it on the education, both higher ed and K-12, where they're looking at things. And you're right. Nobody wants larger classrooms, so they're trying to figure out where else are we making cuts. And it's a challenge that I don't wish on my worst enemy, to be honest with you.
Ryan James:
Well, Mike, I really appreciate you joining me today for a few minutes. And giving our viewers look at some of the things in a large school district and how you're dealing with some HR and financial challenges. Appreciate the insight and I would look forward to staying in touch with you as we go on. I hope you have a great week. And again, thank you so much.
Mike Loitz:
No problem. Thanks, Ryan. I really appreciate the time.
