Does Your School Have an HR Person?

I worked for an independent school for 5 years with over 100 employees and about 500 students. It was an old well-established school in New York City and it did not have a dedicated HR person. It did have a business manager who took care of many of the HR tasks but all resumes were filtered through the head's office.

Sorry, that is not much help. I don't think it is a bad idea but if you can mix it with other business functions for a business manager type position then you might be more likely to convince them.

Can't help you here. I think it's ridiculous and irresponsible to have staffing like this. I doubt each class has 1 teacher to every 2-3 kids. This got public schools in trouble. You would need to give ME a winning arguement to justify this Staff to Student ratio. I sure hope NONE of my tax dollars are going to this school! (Please tell me this is a private school!) Too many highly paid administrative staff (not too mention benefits and PENSIONS) are killing our schools.

Added: S.S. Thanks for clarifying this. There's been lot of crazy things as far as public schools and what some administrations have done, so my mind went there first. My apologies for not asking what this situation was first. You would definitely have more of a need to match specialists with specific needs than other schools would.

Neither our public or private school has an HR person, but we are small schools. I graduated with 32 in my high school class.

S.S.

Public schools don't have an HR person at each school - that would be a waste of taxpayers money...they have an HR person in the District Office.

A public school should NOT have an HR person at the school....again - waste of my money...a private school? You need to approach the school board and administration with your idea.....

ANY Business needs a HR person - to handle the procedures for hiring and firing...as well as for general purpose SOPs, ratios...so much goes into the proper functioning of ANY business...you need to look at your school and put a plan together.

I work in a school in Ohio and no, we don't have an official HR person..most of those type duties are handled by the payroll clerk in the Treasurer's office.

My daughter-in-law teaches in a small charter school and she said the HR duties are actually handled by principal.

Since you are in a private school funded by parents, could you make a presentation to the parent group, board of education or board of directors? Good luck!

HR.... is all about knowing Employment laws, hiring/firing/screening applicants/dealing with Employee issues/conflicts/Training Staff/Conflict resolution/Knowing about salary & benefits and per the Laws/Employee Relations/ and MUCH more. etc.
It is a very important role. And per liability handling for the school, per Laws, State and Federal.

It is not just doing office work.

Here is a link about the Role:
http://humanresources.about.com/od/jobdescriptions/f/hr_j...

Many schools, do have an HR person. Even if that is at the job overseeing ALL of the public schools.

It is a must and a pivotal role. If not, a school can get in trouble.
You are dealing with Laws. Employment. Even "discrimination" cases and issues that arise.
This is something that not even a Principal, can do daily.

Oh my... 50 isn't a crazy number at all

Lets say 10 classrooms

10 teachers
10 aids
8 specialty teachers (music, drama, PE, 3 languages, chem, bio)
2 student teachers
1 psychologist
1 principal
1 vice p
5 office staff
3 janitorial workers
3 cafeteria workers (bare min)
3 admissions staff
2 nurses
1 union rep
__________

Okay... and all of that was BEFORE the update that it's a special needs school... which means even more teachers and aids a LOT more sick time (if any of the special needs kids include kids with low functioning immune systems), as well as OT therapists, psychologists, a grant writer, etc.

Yep... if you actually wrote down the 'list' of all the specialties in your school, plus attracting more highly qualified staff / dealing with SN parents and staff issues... write up an entire proposal.

I worked in the HR department of a public school district for awhile. There were 6 of us handling over 1300 employees. This included hiring/firing background checks, union relations, payroll, health benefits, pension plans to name a few of our jobs. As much of a pain as it is, schools must keep spending on administration to a minimum for political reasons. It is true in public or private schools and good times as well as bad times.
How is HR stuff handled now? Maybe let your boss know you'd be interested in assisting with that stuff. Sounds like the school is growing, maybe you can grow into that position as the school expands.