New School District Job Titles: Human Resources and School Relations/PR

In this series of blog posts, we are featuring the 36 new job titles we recently added to our database of school personnel. These titles reflect the ways that school districts are responding to our changing world with new positions that help them address today’s challenges and those they will face in the future. We’ve already talked about new titles in the  “Technology,” “Health & Wellness” and “Facilities Management and School Safety” categories. In this final installment, let’s take a look at jobs that focus on taking care of staff, faculty, and the community: “Human Resources” and “School Relations/PR.”

The pandemic only exacerbated the levels of teacher burnout and dissatisfaction with the profession. In fact, according to our report, Educator Perspectives on the State of the Teaching Profession, 2022, only 30 percent say they are satisfied with their current position and just 10 percent would recommend the teaching profession to a young adult. Recognizing this critical issue, school districts are investing more in Human Resources positions to support recruitment and retention.

People in new titles, such as “Employee Relations & Services Director,” are developing and improving programs related to employee morale and satisfaction to support teacher retention. Another new title is “Professional Learning and Development Director.” Individuals in these positions design and implement in-service professional learning opportunities for teachers to support them in learning new skills to enhance their teaching as well as helping them explore personal growth and career development.

Events of the past few years have also shone a brighter spotlight on our schools and, as a result, districts are adding jobs that foster community engagement. Districts are adding “Chief Communications Officers” to their superintendents’ teams. In these roles, individuals are responsible for ensuring that the district’s families, staff, and other community stakeholders are well-informed about what is happening in their schools, new accomplishments, and potential challenges. Typically, their team includes media relations  managers, marketing and communications directors, social media managers, and government relations professionals. In many instances, they also foster community partnerships to support the school district.

Another new title in this category is “Community Engagement and Relations Director.” Particularly in larger districts, this role reports to the “Chief Communications Officer.” In others, they are the lead school relations/PR person in the district, managing media relations, social media, and other programs for connecting and communicating with community stakeholders.

All of the new titles featured in this series of blog posts are included in our database of nearly 6 million K-12 personnel from the country’s 13,000 school districts. Check out all the new titles here and use our ConnectED Cloud ListBuilder to build campaigns using these titles, and hundreds of others, for targeted campaigns to provide education decision makers with information about the ways your products and services can help them address the challenges they are facing today. Want to learn more? Reach out to us at mdrinfo@dnb.com.