At Spotter Staffing, we take pride in our dedicated team of experts who specialize in connecting schools with top-tier therapy and special education professionals. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to one of the key people making it happen—Nate Kline!

As a Team Lead, Nate works tirelessly to help Illinois schools find the hard-to-find talent they need to support their students. His expertise, passion, and deep understanding of the industry make him an invaluable partner for districts looking to fill crucial roles.

Check out the video below to meet Nate, hear his insights on special education staffing, and see why he’s such an essential part of our mission!

Meet Spotter Staffing Team Lead, Nate Kline!

Transcription:

 Mackenzie: Thanks for joining us on a new edition of “Meet Your Team Lead.” We’re joined today with Nate Klein from Spotter Staffing. Nate, thanks for joining us.

Nate: Thank you, Mackenzie. Good morning.

Mackenzie: Good morning. It’s great to see you. So you’re our newest team lead at Spotter. We’re excited to have you here. The first question I always start off with on these is just if you could explain kind of what your role is at Spotter and kind of what you do day to day.

Nate: Yeah, so what, like you mentioned, I’m a team lead. So, uh, responsibilities are pretty simple as I look at them. Um, but it involves a lot. So, first of all, geographically, I support a majority of Lake County, all of McHenry County, and then very far eastern part of Boone County. And where my responsibilities are, it’s, it’s really three things. It’s one, you know, developing and cultivating and managing the relationship with our client schools. The second is ensuring that. We’re finding, you know, great therapists and teachers to place into those schools and ensuring that they’re going to be successful and then internally the management of our recruiting and delivering team.

Mackenzie: Yeah, I know we, we get a lot of awesome opportunities from schools and it’s really cool to see on the back end how you guys figure out, you know, which available talent we have, who would fit those roles and who works with the school’s individual culture and all the differences in each school. You know, what they really need, not just for an open position, any SLP could fill, but really a specific SLP who fit in that culture and really thrive in that environment. So you guys spend a lot of time working on that and making sure that the schools get the people that they need so that their students can thrive. And it’s really awesome. Yeah. And I think that’s the most important part.

Nate: It is just ensuring the student success, right? Overall the mission. I know that’s the mission of the schools. That’s the mission of the therapists that we work with. And ultimately, you know, our mission to ensure that we’re giving the support needed to make that happen.

Mackenzie: For sure. I think that’s very well said. If you were to give any piece of advice to a school who has an opening in special education or speech or social work, do you have any kind of like overall hiring advice you would give them?

Nate: Yeah, I think it starts with, and I like to make things simple, but I’ll say clear expectations. And, um, What I mean by that is it’s not only what’s expected in the role of the unexpected of the individual coming in, the clear expectations around what they can expect, right? Not everything is perfect. I know a lot of us strive for, for perfection, but, you know, there’s going to be good and there’s going to be bad with everything. And I think the more someone understands what they’re getting into, the better prepared they’re going to be, to be successful in a role, you know, so there’s always a vision and there’s always this, this down the road view of, of what things could be. That’s important as well to share that. You know, but then to acknowledge the reality of the situation too, I think, you know, with most people that don’t succeed in a role, didn’t have a clear view of what that would look like. And I do view that as my responsibility to help facilitate what that looks like.

Mackenzie: Yeah, I think that’s great. I think that’s a really smart way to set not only the schools up for success, but the therapists and the special educators in those roles, too. We don’t want to throw anybody a curveball that they weren’t expecting. And, you know, like you said, schools are always different and every day at a school can be different and the classroom will be different, knowing what people are looking for and what those environments look like is really important. So I think that’s a great piece of advice. I know you haven’t always been in school staffing, so you have a kind of a vast career and a varied career with lots of experience, but if you were going to give like what your greatest lesson has been in your career so far, what would you say it’s been for you?

Nate: So this may be relevant to the industry that I’ve worked in, because like you said, I’m new to working with schools, not new to staffing. I spent my first 18 years of my career in staffing, and I think it’s sort of others first, you know, when I think about it, if I’m serving my clients, if I’m serving, you know, the contractors, or in this case, the therapists and teachers as well as my internal partners. And if every decision I make is, is putting those three best interests first, then ultimately I’m going to succeed, you know, and, and I just look at it as like serve others, serve others, and you will succeed. So, and also personally for me, that does bring a lot of joy and fulfillment too.

Mackenzie: Yeah, I think you’re definitely in the right industry for serving others. I know every school is working towards making sure those students succeed and every social worker, therapist, speech language pathologist, special educator, they’re all working towards making sure not only they succeed in their career, but also the students they work with every day succeed. So I think that’s a great point and definitely a great bit of advice. Well, I appreciate you sharing with us. Some more professional overviews about your philosophy and your background, but I have a couple of questions so that people can get to know you a little bit better. So, my first one of those would be, what when you were younger, did you want to be, did you always think you would end up in school staffing when you were a kid?

Nate: Oh, I didn’t know if I would end up in staffing in general. So I’ll give the real world answer because I think it would have been some version of like a superhero, but. Um, the last time I checked, I don’t have any legitimate real superpowers. Um, actually my, my goal coming out of college and it wasn’t what I went to school for, but I have a lot of family that were military and public service and like police officers. And that wasn’t necessarily my path, but I applied to be a firefighter. And, you know, I may have been a little bit stubborn as a, you know, in-depth college student coming out of school, but I applied to the biggest. You know, district, the most, you know, intense, busiest district in Indianapolis. It was like a one year like waiting list. And unfortunately, um, I had to get a job because I wasn’t going to have a way to pay bills or a place to live if I didn’t. So, uh, you know, I, I think it’s, it’s fortunate. I’m very grateful for where I’ve landed, but I still remember the day that I applied and somewhat of the feeling of like, well, I guess I’m going to have to go a different path.

Mackenzie: Well, it’s fun to see how that serving people and caring for people runs throughout your entire career trajectory. So I like that. Okay. My second question has nothing to do with that at all, but I’m excited to hear your answer. Um, it would be if you had to pick one go-to karaoke song, what would your karaoke song be?

Nate: See, that’s hard. I feel like this has evolved over time, but Um, I’m gonna go, I think it’s more about the vocals and where they are today, but it’s gonna be the Doors Roadhouse Blues. Okay. Um, I just, I don’t know, I’m a big fan of that song, it’s easy to sing. Um, there are some that have heard this. Um, I, I did do a mean Montel Jordan, “This is how we do it” back in the day. Okay. So I don’t know if that one ever comes out of retirement, but that used to be a go to.

Mackenzie: Well, I think the next Spotter get-together, we’ll have to see if we can get one of those two out of you. Alright, I know you have a lot to do and a lot of schools to help, so I will let you get back to your day after this last question, but, uh, one last very important thing for everyone to know about you, if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Nate: I think it’s going to be probably one of the most unhealthy choices of all time, but it’s going to be my grandma’s pierogis. Um, not only is it amazing and delicious to me, I grew up with it, but, uh, the memories that I get when I have it, it it’s, oh, it’s amazing. We still do it as a family once a year, but I mean, it’s a full day process to make it the way that she made it.

Mackenzie: I bet. Yeah. Do you have them for Easter or just all year?

Nate: Usually in the spring. Yeah, around, around, uh, when her birthday was. So yeah, we do that as a way to celebrate.

Mackenzie: Well, that’s good. Definitely not the most unhealthy. I think mine are chicken wings. I know Ryan Cleveland, our CEO, his is tacos. So I don’t think most people’s would be a light salad.

Nate: Well, that’s my second choice.

Mackenzie: I appreciate you spending some time with us this morning and letting everyone watching get to know you a little better. Thanks for tuning in at home and we will see you next time on “Meet Your People” with Spotter Staffing.

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