The Ames Community School District is looking to hire a human resources director after going without one for seven years. 

Superintendent Tim Taylor currently fulfills most of the human resources director duties along with serving as superintendent. He was the associate superintendent for human resources before taking the top job in 2010, and back then, the district was facing a $3.5 million budget cut. So instead of hiring a replacement, he kept the human resources responsibilities.

“Each year after that, because of our enrollment and a lack of state aid, it was impossible at that point to expect that we could add back a position like that when we were increasing class sizes and reducing teaching staff,” he said Wednesday.

But this school year, enrollment in Ames went up 12 students from 2015-16. State-appropriated money is allocated on a per-student basis based on the previous year’s enrollment, so the district will receive more state money for the 2017-18 school year. Last month, Taylor said the 1.11 percent increase in state funding, approved by the Legislature, would bring $351,825 more to the general fund.

“Whenever your enrollment is up, you generally have additional general fund expenditures to (add a position),” he said.

The new human resources director will start work on July 1. According to the online job posting, candidates should have at least eight years of “successful” experience in education, preferably in a district or school’s administration. Among other responsibilities, the director will assign all 630 district staff members to their positions, oversee personnel records, handle complaints and serve as the chief negotiator for the district during the collective bargaining process.

The position’s starting salary is listed at $98,000, and the director will report to Taylor. As of Wednesday, he said eight or nine people had applied for the job. Candidates have until April 17 to apply.

At the Feb. 27 school board meeting, concerned parents and community members submitted a petition that asked for more transparency and accountability from the district. It also requested the creation of a human resources director separate from Taylor.

On Wednesday, though, Taylor said the petition wasn’t the reason behind the job opening. The school board has been asking him to add the position for the past three years but he had to prioritize, he said. The human resources director even appeared on the budget for the 2017 fiscal year, but he had to remove it to hire more teachers.

“I elected not to fill it because, again, we were in a position where it was, ‘Do I hire an HR person or do I hire the three additional teachers that we needed to take care of some of our classrooms?,'” he said.

For Helen Blitvich, the parent who presented the petition to the school board, it didn’t matter that the decision was made separate of the petition. The petition said decision-making power was too concentrated between Taylor and Associate Superintendent Mandy Ross.

Blitvich was “just glad” the position has returned. She was, however, concerned that prior human resources experience was not listed as a requirement for the position.

“You want them to have human resources experience as well,” she said.

Regardless of experience, the new director will lessen the burden on Taylor. He estimated that his human resources responsibilities take up 50 to 60 percent of time on the job, and that’s with delegating some of the work to Ross and the district’s principals.

Plus, overseeing district personnel means that assorted crises, whether it be civil rights complaints, terminations or resignations, immediately shoot to the top of Taylor’s to-do list, postponing other tasks.

“It’s just something in order to prepare for the future, and it’s something that’s going to allow not only myself but some other people on the staff who have picked up those responsibilities to get back to their main focus,” he said.

Speaking of the future, Taylor conceded he won’t serve as superintendent forever, and adding this position now could make his job more appealing to whoever his successor might be.

“When I do decide that I’m going to retire, one of the things that’s going to be really important is they will have difficulty hiring another superintendent in this district who also wants to be the HR person,” he said. “It’s just too much.”