March 28, 2023, Board Meeting — My Thoughts
We held a regular board meeting on March 28th. You can view the meeting on YouTube here. As always, I encourage you to watch the meeting if you can.
Virtual Learning Program
The administration provided a presentation about the virtual learning program. We heard from the folks who run the program and students and parents whom the program has served. This program has helped provide some students and families with a choice that has benefited them. I also thought it was important that even in a virtual program, teachers and administrators have face-to-face contact with the students to ensure the students are doing okay outside of academics.
Unencumbered Time Policy
Last year the state legislature passed a law that requires districts to ensure that elementary school teachers and all special education teachers have 30 minutes of unencumbered time each day. The law required the State Board of Education to draft a model policy, which is the policy on which the administration based our district policy.
I abstained because the administration added a sentence about leave that was both out of place and vague. Since this meeting, the administration removed this sentence in the final version.
More Teacher Certification Suspensions
We voted to suspend two more teachers’ certificates because they resigned in the middle of the year. The conversation around this issue spotlights the disconnect and the need to change how we view our teachers, their jobs, and our role in making things better. The discussion begins at about the 55-minute mark. I will not repeat everything I have previously said on this topic, but you can go here for more background and context.
The school board doesn’t seem to understand how teachers view this practice. The Post & Courier Editorial Board gets it and recently said this:
[The law allowing for suspension of teacher contracts] probably does have the slightly beneficial effect of reducing the number of teachers who are willing to leave mid-year, although it’s not going to make a difference for teachers who are so fed up that they’ve decided they never want to teach again.
But it has a more dramatic negative effect, by contributing to the feeling of disrespect and underappreciation that is driving so many teachers to conclude that their love for the profession is no longer enough to overcome the hostility some parents are directing at them … and the hostility some legislators are directing at them … and the legal obstacle course the S.C. House wants to force them to run through.
Our discussion on this issue gives teachers more reasons to feel disrespected. At one point, a commissioner equated these teachers resigning with a doctor not showing up for surgery. She then concluded by saying, “there’s a responsibility there . . . you can’t go–and get a job at Walmart and not show up and expect to keep the job.”
This analogy doesn’t work for two reasons. First, these teachers didn’t simply stop showing up for work. They resigned—-in writing and with notice, something that both the Walmart employee and doctor can do. Secondly, that Walmart employee—whether they were fired for not showing up or whether they resigned—is not prohibited from working another retail job in the state for the next twelve months.
If you want to use an analogy involving employees with some sort of certification, let’s look at nurses. No matter the circumstances–and there have been very challenging working conditions and a nursing shortage in this state–they can resign whenever they see fit without losing the ability to practice their profession in the state for a year.
I get it; we want teachers in the classroom. But if we think this is how to do it, we shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t work. And it hasn’t worked.
At another point, a commissioner questioned why we would even have contracts if we aren’t going to go after teachers who “break them.” The not-so-subtle implication was that without this contractual stick we would not be able to keep our teachers.
I think there is another way to keep teachers in the classroom. We need to stop ignoring why they are leaving and own up to our share of the responsibility in their day-to-day working conditions. Every board member should read last year’s exit interviews. We should all have the teacher turnover by school information so we can ask the administration what is happening at our high-turnover schools. We should also include our teachers’ voices when promoting administrators within their schools. Those steps would at least be a start.
We are part of the reason for the teacher shortage. We are driving good teachers out of classrooms that desperately need them. It’s long past time we change course and become part of the solution.