Agenda - 06-07-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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15 1 Commissioner Greene clarified that the literacy coach position created a couple of years 2 ago was for the whole district. 3 Dr. Felder said yes. 4 Sarah Smylie said that OCS has had literacy coaches for several years and they have 5 recently added math coaches. She said that when there are teacher vacancies then the literacy 6 coach helps cover in the classroom. She said that is an example of how classroom vacancies 7 have other effects. 8 Commissioner Bedford said that in full disclosure the SNAC Chair is her daughter-in-law. 9 Commissioner Hamilton said that her first career was as a labor economist. She said the 10 jobs that we are seeing so many exit from now are done traditionally by women, and traditionally 11 underpaid. She said that COVID exposed that people were working and not getting adequate 12 compensation for their service work. She said that was supported by a societal lack of valuing 13 human service work. She said that now she is a therapist that social workers are also leaving 14 the profession and are overworked. She said she is happy to hear all strategies that the schools 15 are using to recruit and retain. She said that she is happy to hear that come to them so they can 16 think about how to support the schools. She said they are seeing the same shortage of people 17 at the Board of Health. 18 Commissioner McKee asked if the same amount of people are leaving at higher 19 administrative positions above principal level. 20 Rani Dasi said the percentages are lower but they know they are overburdened. She 21 said that the majority of resignations are for teacher and TA positions. She said that they have 22 had 107 teachers leave this school year. She said that continues to increase as other districts 23 have higher supplements and offer bonuses. 24 Sarah Smylie said she isn't sure for OCS, but there are a lot of vacancies across the 25 board at a national level. 26 Commissioner McKee asked what reasons are being given for the attrition rate for 27 teachers. 28 Rani Dasi said like with any attrition, there is variety. She said attrition to other districts 29 and outside of the state. She said they are hearing consistently that people are leaving the 30 education profession overall. 31 Riza Jenkins said people are leaving for signing bonuses, more flexibility with other 32 professions, and remote positions with higher pay. 33 Carrie Doyle said they have been conducting exit surveys and the reasons are similar. 34 She said that some is financial, some is driving distance, some get offers in their counties. She 35 said that they have attracted people with their redesign because that appeals to some teachers 36 and other teachers that might not want to change and they decide to leave. 37 Commissioner McKee said he has talked to about a dozen teachers in the last six 38 months and none of them have mentioned salary as a reason they have left. He said that some 39 of the reasons he is hearing is a lack of discipline in the schools, workload, lack of support from 40 central office staff, and lack of support from management and teachers. He said they do not feel 41 supported. He said he finds it interesting that none of those reasons were mentioned by the 42 school board. He said that the feedback he is hearing is in the community and it is started to 43 feed on itself. He said that they are burnout on virtual learning and they are overburdened with 44 their workload. He said the elementary teachers that he has talked to say there is a desperate 45 need for TAs in those classrooms. He said that the inability to teach several different learning 46 abilities in one classroom is another major reason to them. He said that he is not saying he 47 knows the answer but he is relaying what he has been told and there is a disconnect. He said 48 they need to figure out the disconnect. He said he is sure they will have to increase salary to 49 match local costs of living. He said that a teacher in the rural areas is not being paid what it 50 costs here, but there is a higher cost of living here. He asked when budget requests are