Minutes 04-28-2022 School Boards

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