Monday, March 17, 2014

Our teachers are our schools - Please take action

Below is the email that I sent to our school board, town council, Superintendents and local media.  Please share if you support.

I found out after school today that 6 more teachers have resigned from Campo Verde High School either effective immediately or at the end of the year.
 
Currently available attrition data:
2012 2013 2014        % inc
Certified Employees 211 264 25%
Certified Employees - 1st 3 months of the year 51 47          55* 15%
           * - through 2.5 months number is 45, I personally am aware of 10 teachers leaving, actual number is probably higher
 
Despite our differences, I believe we can all agree that this kind of attrition is bad for our students, bad for our teachers and bad for our community.

 
I would recommend the following actions:
  1. An open letter from Dr. K to all employees talking positively about the future (everyone that I know who has met her has been impressed)
  2. Discuss attrition at the March 25th board meeting - review the complete data and have a constructive and open discussion
  3. Remove all items from the board agenda other than budget approval and development of a hiring/retention plan until these items are complete
  4. Request a review of a hiring plan at the March 25th board meeting - provide teachers and the community with a Principal hiring time line
  5. Conduct exit interviews to understand why teachers are leaving
  6. Pull in the date to offer contracts to teachers
    • Many other districts are offering contracts earlier.  Teachers that don't want to leave are doing so because they are concerned about not having a contract.  I know that we have significant budget concerns.  However, given the number of teachers leaving, I think it would be unlikely that this would cause the budget to over run.  I wouldn't favor it, but you could do this by subject area if necessary; offering contracts earlier to teachers in more difficult to fill areas.
 
I would ask you to seriously consider these suggestions.  We have a significant problem and it needs to be addressed quickly.  It will take many years to replace the lost experience, and we need to start now.

6 comments:

  1. I think the exit interviews would be incredibly enlightening. Thank you for pulling this information together and writing the letter. Hopefully someone will take up your suggestions and address this issue.

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  2. It would be helpful if you actually calculated the attrition rate. Raw numbers really don't tell the whole story. For example, 211 people leaving a company with 500 employees sounds concerning, but if there are thousands employed at the company it doesn't sound like a cause for alarm.

    Once you actually have the attrition rate calculated, a more accurate picture of what is going on will emerge.

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  3. Tamara, you are correct that attrition rate data would be more helpful. Unfortunately this information is not readily available. I have asked the superintendent and board to provide this information. I can say that the employee base is similar for both years, so the increase in employee turnover is real and the 2014 numbers appear to be getting larger.

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  4. Assuming the numbers you have above are correct, the only other numbers you would need from the district to figure attrition rates are the number of employees in GPS with a breakout of how many are certified and how many are classified. According to the Town of Gilbert's 2011 Annual Report, GPS employed 4,172 people. I am guessing that number has remained pretty steady over the past 2-3 years.

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  5. You have 4119.29 certified staff in the district, but that includes principals. You can find exact numbers at http://www.ade.az.gov/sder/ReportGenerationPublic.asp

    ReplyDelete
  6. Randy - Thank you for providing this link. It is an excellent source of data. Your 4119 number is total district employment. Certified staff is 2327.

    ReplyDelete

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