Marana Unified School District: Reducing Teacher Vacancies by 67%

Location: Marana, Arizona
Website: Marana USD
Enrollment: 12,000+
Demographics: NCES Data

The Challenge: Too Many Vacancies; Too Few Applicants

Marana Unified School District (MUSD), like many districts across the nation, faced an all-too-common staff recruitment challenge: the pool of instructional staff applicants had nearly dried up, leaving critical positions unfilled year after year.

This shortage stood in sharp contrast to what Denise Linsalata, MUSD’s Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, had experienced earlier in her career. “When I was looking for my first teaching job, there were significantly fewer positions than applicants,” she recalls. “Now it’s the complete opposite: we have significantly fewer applicants than positions.”

The district felt this strain on the first day of the 2023–2024 school year when 15 positions remained vacant on the first day of school. And it was a pain felt most sharply by MUSD’s existing staff, who had to step in to plan lessons, support substitutes, and still handle their own classrooms.

“We needed to fill those roles to take the pressure off our other teachers,” says Linsalata. In particular, MUSD struggled to hire special education teachers and aids as well as for high school content areas (such as math and ELA).

So, as a stopgap measure, MUSD turned to contracted teachers.

“It was less a recruitment strategy and more of a trying-to-fill-vacancies strategy,” she says.

Although contracting teachers solved MUSD’s most immediate needs, doing so came with two significant downsides.

“We always prefer to hire teachers directly instead of through agencies. We want these teachers to be part of our culture, part of our district,” explains Linsalata. “And when we work with an agency, a contract teacher can cost 30–50% more than a teacher we hire ourselves because the agency has to get paid. And that contract teacher can walk away at any point because they’re not signing a contract with us, the district.”

Yet the solution seemed right there, just out of MUSD’s reach: “In Arizona, we have a lot of certified teachers who just aren’t in the field of education right now,” Linsalata explains.

This posed a baffling problem for the district: with so many certified teachers in the area, why were they struggling to get applicants?

The Solution: A Modern Recruitment Solution for School Districts

Bringing the best educators to MUSD is more than a goal for Linsalata and Superintendent Dr. Dan Streeter — it’s their mission.

“The big picture is this: we want to bring the best applicants to Marana,” Linsalata says. “The teacher a child has is the most influential factor in their education, so we need to bring the best teachers to Marana.”

This dedication to sourcing top talent led the administration to reevaluate its hiring practices.

As Linsalata explains, “In our weekly conversations, we’re constantly asking, ‘How can we think outside of the box and do things differently?’ Because we can’t continue to do what we’ve always done and expect to fill our vacancies.”

Part of doing things differently meant trying an entirely new approach, so when MUSD decided to partner with SchoolMint for teacher recruitment in early 2024, it marked a turning point for the district’s staff recruitment strategy.

The partnership with SchoolMint covered two core areas:

1. Assessing the Candidate Experience

SchoolMint and MUSD began their partnership with an assessment that covered the district’s current job applicant experience.

“Dr. Streeter’s initial goal was to audit our hiring practices, to really look at where we were doing well and where we could improve,” Linsalata says.

This assessment analyzed the entirety of the candidate’s experience, covering things like:

• How easy it was to find MUSD’s job listings
• Specific ways to improve the district’s careers webpage
• How candidate-friendly was the application process 
• What follow-up activities occurred after an application was submitted

Then SchoolMint generated an in-depth report that provided recommendations for improvement.

As one example, Linsalata notes, “We realized we were asking for too much information far too soon. By asking for that information later, I’ve had assistant principals hire special education aides on the spot, pending background checks.”

2. Effectively Telling MUSD’s Story to Passive and Active Job Seekers

Arizona’s large pool of certified teachers (but currently not teaching) presented an opportunity for MUSD. However, reaching them, particularly those not actively seeking teaching roles, posed a significant hurdle.

“But what got me excited about SchoolMint was the fact we could target passive job seekers in addition to active job seekers,” she says.

SchoolMint used a strategic mix of digital advertising to achieve this dual focus:

• Platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor effectively connected the district with active job seekers — those actively pursuing new opportunities.
• Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit allowed MUSD to engage passive job seekers — certified educators who weren’t searching but could be inspired to return to teaching when presented with the right message.

Through these ads, SchoolMint helped the district tell a compelling story about why MUSD was a great place to be a teacher.

Above: Three examples of SchoolMint’s teacher recruitment Facebook ads for MUSD.

The Results: A 67% Reduction in District Vacancies and Improved Hiring Strategies

MUSD’s partnership with SchoolMint has yielded a variety of measurable, quantitative and qualitative results:

1. 67% Reduction in Vacancies: MUSD began the 2024–2025 school year with only five unfilled positions — down from 15 vacancies the previous year.
2. More Applicants: Due to SchoolMint’s staff recruitment advertising service, MUSD has significantly increased their visibility within the community, leading to a larger pool of qualified candidates. As Linsalata says, “I’m getting more applicants across my desk by partnering with SchoolMint than by only using our application system.”
3. Fewer Contract Teachers: MUSD decreased their number of contracted teachers from five last year to just one for the 2024–2025 year. This has resulted in cost savings (since MUSD no longer needs to pay a staffing agency) and has enabled the district to hire more full-time educators who are fully invested in its culture and community.
4. Alleviated Strain on Current Teachers: With the drastic reduction in vacancies, MUSD’s teachers can now focus on their own classrooms rather than covering for open positions. 
5. Improved Candidate Experience: By adopting a candidate-first approach and modifying their teacher hiring strategy, MUSD has built a stronger, quicker recruitment process for candidates.

SchoolMint Can Help Your District Solve Recruitment Challenges

If your district is facing similar recruitment challenges with hiring teachers and support staff, SchoolMint can help you turn things around with our modern, highly effective recruitment solution!

Our teacher and staff recruitment service will help you:

• Expand Your Reach: Use targeted digital advertising on platforms to connect your district with both active and passive job seekers.
• Improve the Candidate Experience: Simplify your application process, streamline follow-ups, and make your district stand out to prospective hires.
• Refine Your Hiring Practices: Implement best practices like reducing interview steps, offering campus tours, and making conditional offers to attract top talent quickly.
• Fill Vacancies Faster: Reduce reliance on costly contracted teachers and alleviate strain on your existing staff by hiring permanent team members who fit your culture.

Visit our website to learn more about how SchoolMint’s recruitment service can help your district fill vacancies for the roles you need most!