Reimagining Recruitment in Education: Collaborative Discussions Driving Change in Harrisonburg

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Feb 03, 2025

Dear collaborative discussion friends,

This week we would like to share how Jeron Baker, Assistant Director of Human Resources at Harrisonburg City Public Schools, used activities from the Collaborative Discussion Toolkit to help him facilitate inclusive discussions. He used collaborative discussion activities to guide the recruitment process for hiring teachers and staff that represent the diversity of the students in the district.

You can also improve your own discussions by leveraging the power of the Collaborative Discussion Toolkit. Sign up for a Foundations of Collaborative Discussion workshop, where we will model activities that you can use to have better conversations and improve collaboration.

The workshop is being offered on two different dates, February 18 and March 1. Choose the date that works best for you:

Tuesday, February 18th from 6 pm - 8 pm ET. Register by February 6th to get the early bird price of $25! Last chance to get the early bird discount!
Saturday, March 1st from 10 am - 12 pm ET. Register by February 12th to get the early bird price of $25!

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Jeron shares about his experience using the Collaborative Discussion Toolkit

In Harrisonburg, Virginia, Jeron Baker is working to shake up recruitment in education. As part of a refugee resettlement community with some 70 native languages spoken, the challenge isn’t limited to filling teaching and administrative positions: it’s about creating a staff that reflects the incredible diversity of students and community members. With the help of the Interactivity Foundation’s Collaborative Discussion Toolkit, Jeron is tackling this challenge head-on, building a process that prioritizes equity, inclusion, and authentic community engagement.

The Challenge of Representation

In Harrisonburg, as in other districts, there is an existing challenge recruiting educators. “There’s a shortage of educators,” explains Jeron, Assistant Director of Human Resources at Harrisonburg City Public Schools. “The education departments are smaller than they used to be; the number of people that want to be in teaching capacities is less than it used to be.” However, it goes beyond that in that the people retained don’t reflect the student body.

“For me, this isn’t just about solving a recruitment problem—it’s a civic duty. Our staff doesn’t reflect the rich diversity of our students, and that’s something we need to change.”

Jeron’s approach was clear: engage the people closest to the challenges—teachers and staff—to guide the recruitment process. “I could sit in the office and try to tell people what they need, but I’m more interested in hearing from them what that is,” he says.

Applying the Collaborative Discussion Toolkit

Jeron’s ideas coalesced when Eric Schmucker, a former colleague and Co-Manager of the Collaborative Discussion Program (CDP) at the Interactivity Foundation, introduced him to the free Collaborative Discussion Toolkit. “When Eric explained the tools and modules, it just allowed my brain to fire around what might be possible,” Jeron recalls. “It was like, this makes so much sense, and is how I want to structure the work that we want to do.”

“This is it. This is a no-brainer.”

After selecting some CDP Toolkit Activities and with the structure of the initial sessions in mind, Jeron set about recruiting participants for his collaborative discussion. He sent an email to the district’s 1300 staff members, asking who wanted to join the effort—and the response exceeded all expectations. “I thought I’d get three replies,” Jeron laughs. “We ended up with over 50.”

To ensure a manageable and representative group in what has become the Inclusive Recruitment Committee, Jeron worked together with colleagues to assemble a team of 20 people from all areas—from custodians and interpreters to principals and administrators—while prioritizing diversity in language, culture, race, and ethnicity.

The group then came together for the first time, and the impact was immense. “I got multiple text messages almost immediately after the event saying, ‘wow, this was incredible, the way you’re allowing voices to be included in this space is great’.

At this first meeting, three CDP Toolkit activities were used: two to establish group norms, creating a foundation for open and respectful dialogue; and a third where participants imagined an ideal future 40 years from now. Based on that ideal vision for education, the group then began working backwards to the present to figure out actionable steps to get there.

“The meeting was so good and I love how we’re advocating for people’s voices.” – Workshop participant

“Really important to me,” says Jeron, “is how can we bring in the voices of people that don’t get their voices heard often enough—and amplify those voices? And how do we create a platform for these folks to say ‘here is what is really needed for people that look like me, for students that look like me, for families that look like me’?” In this case, the CDP Toolkit supported the process by making it easier to create inclusive, collaborative discussions through its freely-available and easy-to-apply practical activities.

Going forward, the group will continue to meet and co-design the future of educational recruitment. Jeron explains how imagination and collaboration will continue to play a key role: “So with our current constraints, our current reality, what are steps that we can take that put us on the path to the future we want? And then multiply that times however many meetings or sessions or constructs we need to get there.”

Inspiring Broader Change

While Jeron’s focus is on Harrisonburg, there is clear potential for this work to inspire other districts. “If this becomes a model for others, that’s great,” he says. “Though my primary interest is our 9000 students having their lives changed because they have role models at every level of the school division that look like them, and that they know they could be a principal or teacher someday.”

“So much of the work that I’m doing now is predicated on knowing that there are other people working on systems such as affordable housing, places for people to experience culture, and ways to have relationships with other kinds of folks without being tokenized. And it might just be that we are diving into a window that’s opening at the perfect time to create momentum—and create hope, essentially—for our people, for our teams, for our students.”

By centering diverse voices and leveraging the Collaborative Discussion Toolkit, Jeron is helping to reimagine the recruitment process as one rooted in equity, inclusion, and community. “What the Interactivity Foundation is doing feels so fresh,” adds Jeron, “to give not only staff an opportunity but students an opportunity to understand how to have conversations differently. Generationally, it could lead to a change for the better for the human condition.”

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