A Perspective on Finding the Best & Brightest Educators for Schools

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Joe Lampert, the Director of Human Resources for the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Lampert has been with the district for over 30 years and has served in every position from teacher to Dean of Students to Vice Principal to Central Office Staff. Mr. Lampert has also served in the armed forces for many years and retired as a Colonel responsible for HR for the Army. He has a wide berth of knowledge in the field.

Mr. Lampert has a different perspective in Human Resources as he served as a personnel officer for the military. This is a different path from most people. It is a different perspective because in the military you will do what you are told. He retired as Personnel Director for the Intelligence Command in Washington D.C. The experience was different again because of the standardized practices that are guidelines without a lot of gray areas. In school districts there are always changing laws, unions, and different types of people.

Mr. Lampert stated that his job is “to get the best and brightest staff in Pike.” Once he gets them here, we (being the school district), need to keep them here. His responsibilities are also to help those who don’t need to be here find other opportunities. He is happy to say that he has never let anyone go—the individuals let themselves go.

The district participates in a variety of activities including: Minority recruiting fairs, contacts with universities, and especially partnerships with Butler University (practicum and student teaching). These are the best recruitment tools. Also working with IUPUI, Purdue, and many other universities.

Partnerships help because they know the Pike way and will usually work hard. Someone can interview well but it doesn’t tell us that they will be a great teacher. Even when they demonstrate a teaching lesson—that doesn’t guarantee success

He also strongly suggested to remember that the Golden Rule is always in play. Sometimes the intention is good but it brings a challenge. He writes all reprimands and meets with all of the folks affected and is the neutral person. It’s all about perspective.

What Consumes Most of the Time

All people—good and bad. He does so many things for and with people. There are gut wrenching times (illness, etc. and need advice), gone to hospital to change a beneficiary before
dying. Those are tough things—medical issues.

Mr. Lampert attends funerals, hospital visits births, etc.—doesn’t have to do it, but he feels like he does. Another time taker is retirement planning—people need to leave but can’t afford not to
leave. It is a pet peeve of his that sometimes they don’t plan ahead. Because of this, sometimes people stay too long because they can’t afford to retire.

The hardest thing is dealing with the tough medical issues and/or personnel issues (divorce, domestic abuse, other personal matters). It is his job to help teachers get the resources to take
care of our students. “If they are going through something and can’t do their job, we need to help them to get to where they need to do their job if we can.”

The personal touch has been good for maintaining working relationship. Technology makes things much easier, but it also brings its own challenges for him. He regularly answers 100-200
emails/day.

He interacts with principals, teachers, and support staff daily and walks around the district as much as possible. He provides teachers with information on grants and other opportunities
including the Lilly Creativity Grant, China Trip, etc. He sends out gentle reminders to all staff on being safe and reducing the number workman’s compensation claims.

My Personal Insight

I truly enjoyed speaking with Mr. Lampert. Many things I already knew—many things I did not. I think the approach of being a people person is critical to a job such as this. You are dealing
with so many different types of people, backgrounds, experiences, and personal issues so building relationships is of the utmost importance.

Today I feel like I would love to be an HR Director for a school district. Through my time in education I’ve always felt like when you have a relationship with your employees—no matter
how big or small it is, it helps to bring in “your own.” We have had great success with alumni working for the district I’m currently in and I would hope this would continue.