If teachers are leaving left and right, is it the principal's fault?

[Anonymous]

We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

There is an open position at my school. I’ve received multiple colleagues asking if they can apply mid-year as they’re not happy with their admin. I think flukes happen, but it’s very unusual for multiple people to leave mid year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

There is an open position at my school. I’ve received multiple colleagues asking if they can apply mid-year as they’re not happy with their admin. I think flukes happen, but it’s very unusual for multiple people to leave mid year.

That should have said I have received multiple emails from colleagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I left because the county put too many expectations on teachers (excessive workload without enough planning) and the many of the kids were getting lazier and ruder each year. Not sure you can put those things on the principal.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, yes. 1 or 2 teachers may have extenuating circumstances (health issues, spouse job move), but if you have more than that it's because of admin.

The kids can be rough, the workload can be overwhelming (especially at some schools) but when admin is good they are in your corner, backing you up and shielding you from the chaos. When they're bad, they're creating more and blaming you for it.

When my last school had a horrific principal assigned, they lost 95% of staff in 3 years. Central office had to be privy to it, but they didn't seem to care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I left because the county put too many expectations on teachers (excessive workload without enough planning) and the many of the kids were getting lazier and ruder each year. Not sure you can put those things on the principal.

I didn't realize how much they can do until I worked for strong admin. Like, our last school planning day was a full TWD for us--they canceled all meetings. I'm sure they got flack for it, but they absorbed that to shield us because they knew we needed time more than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I left because the county put too many expectations on teachers (excessive workload without enough planning) and the many of the kids were getting lazier and ruder each year. Not sure you can put those things on the principal.

I didn't realize how much they can do until I worked for strong admin. Like, our last school planning day was a full TWD for us--they canceled all meetings. I'm sure they got flack for it, but they absorbed that to shield us because they knew we needed time more than anything else.

Ditto - our ES administrators cancelled our staff dev day a few weeks ago and gave us the entire day to finish our conferences. I STILL feel overwhelmed, but I am definitely thankful that they do the best they can within the framework that we all work. Knowing my P, he’d happily take the heat if someone called him on it. They always seem to have a good pulse on stress levels (ex. They cancelled CLTs this week due to Thanksgiving and all the craziness). Very lucky!!

[Anonymous]

Ours always gives us a “gift” of a work from home day for one of the teacher workdays in the spring. No meetings scheduled. She’s been doing it for years, well before COVID. She would definitely take the heat for it. She’d point to the fact that we don’t have a lot of turnover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I left because the county put too many expectations on teachers (excessive workload without enough planning) and the many of the kids were getting lazier and ruder each year. Not sure you can put those things on the principal.

I didn't realize how much they can do until I worked for strong admin. Like, our last school planning day was a full TWD for us--they canceled all meetings. I'm sure they got flack for it, but they absorbed that to shield us because they knew we needed time more than anything else.

Ditto - our ES administrators cancelled our staff dev day a few weeks ago and gave us the entire day to finish our conferences. I STILL feel overwhelmed, but I am definitely thankful that they do the best they can within the framework that we all work. Knowing my P, he’d happily take the heat if someone called him on it. They always seem to have a good pulse on stress levels (ex. They cancelled CLTs this week due to Thanksgiving and all the craziness). Very lucky!!

Wow, that's nice! We have ours tomorrow. If for some reason we miss one we often have to schedule a make up date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I left because the county put too many expectations on teachers (excessive workload without enough planning) and the many of the kids were getting lazier and ruder each year. Not sure you can put those things on the principal.

I didn't realize how much they can do until I worked for strong admin. Like, our last school planning day was a full TWD for us--they canceled all meetings. I'm sure they got flack for it, but they absorbed that to shield us because they knew we needed time more than anything else.

Ditto - our ES administrators cancelled our staff dev day a few weeks ago and gave us the entire day to finish our conferences. I STILL feel overwhelmed, but I am definitely thankful that they do the best they can within the framework that we all work. Knowing my P, he’d happily take the heat if someone called him on it. They always seem to have a good pulse on stress levels (ex. They cancelled CLTs this week due to Thanksgiving and all the craziness). Very lucky!!

Wow, that's nice! We have ours tomorrow. If for some reason we miss one we often have to schedule a make up date.

We don’t do that but they definitely didn’t cancel us this week which would have been nice so we have extra time to get set up and planned for next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had multiple teachers quit mid-year - is this because they're not being supported by the principal? The last time this happened, the principal was fired. Is ours likely to get fired too? Should families contact the Exec Principal or Regional Principal?

I haven’t heard of any teachers quitting but I suppose it’s entirely possible we aren’t talking about the same school. What school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours always gives us a “gift” of a work from home day for one of the teacher workdays in the spring. No meetings scheduled. She’s been doing it for years, well before COVID. She would definitely take the heat for it. She’d point to the fact that we don’t have a lot of turnover.

My understanding is that central office is cracking down on principals allowing WFH on workdays if it didn’t come from central themselves.

Meanwhile most of HR stays remote….

[Anonymous]

Are the teachers truly quitting or are they just reassigned, requesting/granted transferred, lateral move, or whatever you eat to call it to a different school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the teachers truly quitting or are they just reassigned, requesting/granted transferred, lateral move, or whatever you eat to call it to a different school?

Not the OP, but we’ve had two quit this year and they just left the profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the teachers truly quitting or are they just reassigned, requesting/granted transferred, lateral move, or whatever you eat to call it to a different school?

That is not possible. No one is approving a lateral move once school has started. The only way a teacher could leave after school has started would be if they got a promotion. For a teacher, that would be moving to an assistant principal position. There have been a few AP positions that have posted—maybe five or six. There’s no way that is accounting for the movement OP is noticing. The likely culprit is a combination of life events (spouse transferred, burnout, personal medical issues).