116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Teaching experience makes Darius Ballard unique as Cedar Rapids schools’ new human resource director
Since starting July 1, Ballard has helped fill more than 60 open teaching positions
Sep. 22, 2023 5:00 am, Updated: Sep. 22, 2023 11:19 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Darius Ballard wanted to be a teacher since he was assigned to choose a career as a first-grader.
“I had three criteria at the time,” Ballard said. “One was wardrobe — I wanted to dress cool, and I thought teachers got to dress sharp. Another was I wanted to be a kid for the rest of my life. And I kept hearing this vacation thing was important. In school we had winter and summer breaks.”
From that moment on, Ballard said he looked at every teacher he had as a “try out” for what kind of teacher he eventually wanted to be.
His career started as a biology teacher at Jefferson High School in 2007, where he taught for about nine years. Most recently, Ballard was principal at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids.
Now as chief human resource officer for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, Ballard, 37, oversees about 3,100 employees. He and his department work to recruit and retain educators and staff and oversee employee benefits and payroll.
Since starting July 1, Ballard has helped fill more than 60 open teaching positions.
To help alleviate the teacher shortage, the district began offering a $1,500 bonus over two years to any current employees who refer a teacher to the district and that person stays for two years.
They also are paying a $5,000 hiring bonus for new special education teachers to the district who stay for three years, and a bonus of $3,000 for newly hired Black, Indigenous or people of color who stay for three years. These bonuses will paid over a three-year period. Another $20,000 is being allocated to fund support services for staff of color.
Ballard said he was interested in the position of chief of human resource officer because he’s a “very big fan” of new Superintendent Tawana Grover, who began April 3.
“I think the work she is doing is critical, and I believe I owe it to the system and to her to do everything in my power to give her as much of my talents to ensure her success and the success of our district.”
Ballard values relationships. Each career decision he’s made included considering the impact he could have versus the people he would leave behind.
As a teacher at Jefferson, Ballard said he felt well-connected and supported. He felt “a little intimidated” to “start over” as associate principal and then principal at Washington High, where he wanted to build a culture of appreciation, acceptance and support for students and staff.
“I tried to apply that as my central dogma every day,” Ballard said.
Moving to his role at the district’s central office — the Educational Leadership and Support Center — felt like another new start, Ballard said.
“I am more aware now than I’ve ever been that I am very much a people person,” Ballard said. “The more people, the happier I am. To have a building of hundreds of kids and adults who knew me and I knew them and we had daily interactions is almost impossible to recreate. There’s a fulfillment there I loved and miss.”
As a principal, Ballard got to lead all-school assemblies, proctor exams, supervise lunch and athletic events. “I miss those hats I got to wear,” he said. “The ways that allowed me to connect with the kids.”
That’s what makes Ballard an unconventional chief of human resources officer, he said. Just over a month into the school year, Ballard said he has visited a dozen schools and 50 classrooms.
He believes doing “field pop-ins” to elementary, middle and high schools will better help him help educators, teachers and staff serve kids.
Ballard — who doesn’t have a background in human resources — said that is what makes him a good fit for this position. “It’s all foreign,” he said. “I’m going to ask questions, push in a very gentle, good way to help our system rethink why we do what we do.”
“I’m an HR director that taught,” Ballard said.
One of the most important aspects of Ballard’s job is retaining current staff. “That means I have to create an environment where everybody feels like they have the support they need to be successful,” he said.
Staff need to feel like the Cedar Rapids school district “is the greatest place to work” and share that message with others to inspire them to also want to work for the district, Ballard said.
Attracting people to a career in education, however, is more challenging than ever. The perception of an educator has “taken some very big hits,” Ballard said. It also requires teachers to be “more versatile” than ever before. Not only do they have to be content experts, but they need to be experts in social-emotional learning, behavior management and college and career readiness.
This all with schools facing budget reductions as student enrollment in the district declines and Iowa’s per-pupil state aid fails to keep up with rising costs.
In addition to his role in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, Ballard is a DJ who “makes the party crazy.” Most recently, he DJ-ed the district’s back to school event for staff at the ImOn Ice Arena.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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