DES MOINES, Iowa — The Des Moines Public School District made it a mission over the summer to recruit and hire staff to fill its vacant positions — and the hard work paid off.

The district wasn’t only trying to hire for classroom teacher positions, but for staff positions, including custodians, food and nutrition workers, and bus drivers.

Rainey Briggs, DMPS Chief Operations Officer, said that DMPS has 72 buildings that span the entire district. He said that roughly 210 custodians are needed for the district to be fully-staffed in that area. Currently, they only have 13 of those positions still open. As for food and nutrition, only nine positions are open, and the district is searching for three head cooks.

Briggs said that all of the summer efforts paid off.

“This past summer we had two job fairs where we had great turnout of people coming and wanting to be a part of the district and work here in the district,” Briggs said. “So that has been a huge part. I would say also just being out in the community, encouraging people to look at some of the positions that we have.”

Briggs also said that the $265 million proposed bond referendum for “reimagining DMPS” has also been a pull for people wanting to come and work for a district that is trying to make changes to improve learning.

“I think it (bond referendum) would definitely impact us from a standpoint of ensuring that our facilities are what they need them to be to continue to educate the kids the best that we can, and then also allowing our staff to have the facilities that they need to teach and have that impact on student growth,” Briggs said.

He also said that the district is still looking for bus drivers and other transportation positions. To find all open positions at DMPS, you can visit School Spring via this link.