We held a regular board meeting on June 13th. You can view the meeting on YouTube here. As always, I encourage you to watch the meeting if you can.

Teacher Vacancies and Storytelling

We have over 300 teacher vacancies. I pointed out that this number is approximately double that of other districts, including those much larger than ours. I think it is helpful for everyone to watch this discussion for themselves (beginning at the 33-minute mark).

First, in response to my question about why we aren’t doing better in this regard, the head of HR suggested that we stop criticizing the district. Another commissioner echoed this sentiment later in the meeting. This isn’t the first time someone has suggested that raising concerns on behalf of teachers and staff is why teachers are leaving us. I believe this rationale has it backward. When teachers and staff tell us about problems, and then we refuse to address them or even discuss them, it leaves the impression that we are ignoring them. And we are. We have stubbornly refused to read their exit interviews, and we refuse to demand that the administration provide teacher turnover data critical to our decisions.

Moreover, we do have some information about why teachers leave their schools in our district. As I have repeatedly pointed out, concerns about school climate and leadership at individual schools drive our low retention rate. Teachers in our district leave their school for these reasons at a rate four times the state average.

But what followed is, I believe, more troubling. One commissioner suggested that we have larger teacher vacancy numbers because we have a much lower teacher-to-student ratio than other districts. This commissioner argued that if we had the same teacher-to-student ratio as other districts, our teacher vacancies would practically be zero.

First, the number used by the commissioner was pulled out of thin air. Our teacher-to-student ratio—which is an actual number that one can find on the state department website—is similar to other districts. So, that doesn’t—and literally cannot—explain why we have double the teacher vacancies as other districts. I have heard from folks inside the administration and folks from our schools who were troubled that a commissioner could so easily make up statistics about their day-to-day experience and that we would just go along with it.

This same commissioner suggested that we needed to “tell our story” rather than rely on data and numbers. This helps explain why we ignore stubborn facts. Stories are important, to be sure. But it is easy to miss important issues when we focus on a few success stories. For example, in 2022, just over half of our graduates were college or career ready. It is easy to present the stories of some graduates who were college or career ready or both college and career ready. But that does nothing to help do a better job at helping all those who weren’t either.

Then other commissioners trotted out the well-worn suggestion that our district cannot be compared to any other district. Why? Well, we have urban, suburban, and rural areas in our district. Of course, so do some other districts. Also, our poverty rate is higher than in some districts. This is true. As I said at the meeting, I fully recognize poverty’s impact on our students and the schools that serve them. Unfortunately, the poverty rate does not explain our teacher vacancies. This would be borne out by the teacher turnover data the administration has refused to turn over. That data would show that some of our lowest-poverty schools have the highest teacher turnover and vice versa. It would also show that the teacher turnover data changes at the same school depending on the leadership at that school. Our student poverty rate is not driving teachers out of our schools.

Our teachers know why they and their colleagues are leaving. We should listen to them.