September 12, 2023, Board Meeting — My Thoughts
We held a regular board meeting on September 12th. You can view the meeting on YouTube here. I will only address one topic from that meeting. But first, I want to provide some information about our district’s teacher turnover.
Teacher Turnover
The administration finally provided last year’s teacher turnover for each school in the district. And for the first time, the administration also provided enough information so that we can determine the actual turnover rate for each school. This is a step in the right direction.
Here is the information that the district provided. You can see that teacher turnover differs significantly from school to school.
This data debunks the hypothetical excuses offered in response to my concerns about our teacher vacancies. The data demonstrates that our high teacher turnover has nothing to do with the fact that our district encompasses urban, suburban, and rural areas. Moreover, this data refutes the unsupported assertion that our district’s poverty rate is driving our teacher turnover. Some of the highest turnover schools have some of the lowest poverty rates in the district and vice versa. While poverty impacts our schools in many ways, this data reveals what we already know — school leadership — more than any other single factor — affects teacher turnover. To be sure, there are other factors, but to ignore this one is missing the point.
Our unwillingness to face this head-on hurts this district and our students. We currently have over 160 teacher vacancies, far more than any other district in the state, even those much larger than ours. It’s time to stop making made-up excuses and start fixing this.
Teacher Supply Checks
One way to reduce our teacher turnover is to increase the level of transparency and honesty with our teachers and staff. Several interventionists reached out during the first few weeks of school because they did not receive supply checks and were told they wouldn’t receive them this year. They are certified educators and had always received them in the past, so they were surprised that this year was different. At the board meeting, I asked the administration about this. The administration informed us that the state did not include funds for reading interventionists this year but that the district would provide the money directly.
After the meeting, a few interventionists said this was incorrect. Indeed, a state department document indicates that reading interventionists were included in the supply funding at the state level.
So, I asked for an explanation at this board meeting. You can watch the exchange for yourself at the 29:55-minute mark. I can tell you that the teachers who watched this were frustrated that the administration would not simply explain what happened and accept responsibility if a mistake was made.