An auditor’s report on extensive human resources shortcomings at Arlington Public Schools has leaders promising corrective action.
“There’s a lot of issues — training is desperately needed,” said auditor Alice Blount-Fenney, whose report laid less fault at the feet of front-line HR staff and more on broader institutional failings.
Only 25% of HR staff reported they had adequate training and resources to provide accurate and helpful support to school-system employees, while only 24% of the Arlington Public Schools (APS) workforce said it felt that HR staff was responsive to their needs when issues arose.
The report outlines numerous potential impacts of poor training. They include compliance violations, operational inefficiencies, legal liability, poor service delivery and employee grievances and dissatisfaction.
“There were a lot of disgruntled employees,” Blount-Fenney said at a School Board meeting last night (Thursday), parsing results of an APS-wide survey conducted from early December to mid-January.
More than 1,500 staff members voiced opinions, anonymously, in the online survey.
“The results of the audit confirm that overall management controls over the Human Resources Department are unsatisfactory and warrant the attention of the Superintendent and the School Board to discuss oversight of this department,” an executive summary says.
The school system’s HR operation has seen significant turnover, from front-line employees to top administrators, in recent years. The latest assistant superintendent in charge of HR, Corey Dotson, started just last September.
Because of a lack of institutional procedures and policies, the HR operation frequently has been rudderless, the audit determined.
“When employees left, all the knowledge and experience went out the door,” Blount-Fenney said.
Blame for the state of affairs does not lie with rank-and-file employees, the auditor said. They want to do the right thing but are lacking the tools.
Staff brought in to serve in HR capacities indicated “that they desperately needed training,” said Blount-Fenney, one of the few school-system staff members reporting directly to the elected Board rather than the superintendent.
Those Board members acknowledged the problem had festered for too long without being addressed, and would take time to fix.
“This is obviously sobering,” said Bethany Zecher Sutton, who likely will have the hot-potato issue dropped in her lap if, as expected, she rotates in as the body’s chair this summer.
“There’s a lot to do,” she said, calling for “a shift in culture” along with new policies, procedures and training.
The report “speaks for itself,” said Board member Zuraya Tapia-Hadley, who with Kathleen Clark joined the School Board in January.
Superintendent Francisco Durán, who in June will mark five years leading the system, did not publicly take personal responsibility for the situation, but promised to deal with deficiencies.
“I have full confidence we will address this,” he said.
Board members seemed disinclined to hold anyone directly accountable — in part because, excepting Durán, the chain of command in HR has seen ongoing turnover since the pandemic.
“The goal is to improve, not to play gotcha,” Board member Miranda Turner said.
Dotson will be in front of the School Board in May to provide an update on the issue.
“We really need to get this right,” Board Chair Mary Kadera said. “This is a very serious situation that we have.”
While staff concerns about HR apparently had simmered for years, they broke into the public spotlight in 2023.
That year, HR staff had to face the brunt of furious educators and other personnel after school-system leadership changed health-care providers but gave the rank-and-file little advance notice of the looming shift.
