Like many schools post-pandemic, Cherry Hill Public Schools has struggled to hire and retain qualified staff. The crux of the struggle in Cherry Hill was the district’s ranking for starting salaries. Cherry Hill ranked 478 out of 498 statewide for new hires with a bachelor’s degree, and 456 out of 497 statewide for those with a master’s degree. In a year with record school staff shortages, low starting salaries equals low staff recruitment and retention.
“At the high school and middle school levels, we had a lot of members covering additional periods,” explains Cherry Hill Education Association (CHEA) President Steve Redfearn, who has been a member of the New Jersey Labor Management Collaborative (LMC) since August 2022. “When we sought candidates for open positions, our starting salary was so low that we couldn’t get qualified candidates in the door.”
Searching for solutions
The Cherry Hill Board of Education began addressing the salary guide issue at its meetings in 2023, publicly addressing the need to improve teacher recruitment and retention. With guidance from the board’s professional association and the New Jersey LMC, the board included CHEA and district stakeholders in the discussions.
Despite the departure of LMC-supportive board members, Joel Mayer and Gina Winters, discussions continued with Cherry Hill Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton, Board President Miriam Stern, other board members and administrators in the human resources and business offices.
“It is helpful to bring all of the partners together,” Redfearn elaborates. “We needed the perspective of our HR folks on why we couldn’t get qualified candidates. We needed the superintendent’s perspective as well as our board, knowing about all these open positions and our members taking on additional periods.”
