HTS teacher/staff turnover
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Anonymous
What grades? I call bs because not a single child in either of my kids’ grades is leaving. |
Anonymous
| These posts always strike me as suspicious. If you go to the school, wouldn’t asking other parents or admin be the next step? Why are you anonymously asking on a forum? |
Anonymous
Very suspicious. They strike me as started by someone who was pushed out for poor performance with an axe to grind. Any family this unhappy with their child’s school would obviously leave instead of starting new threads like this every couple of months. |
Anonymous
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I'm trying to figure out these kinds of posts:
"There are 13 faculty members leaving and you can thank the administration for it. I’ve heard the community is not great right now and the teachers are tired of working for someone who is under qualified and abrasive." "The principal has caused a lot of people to leave. The school is not transparent at all, as an additional three teachers left during the year all stemming from issues with lack of accountability and transparency." What specifically has the principal done that would drive teachers to quit? Classroom teacher experience is driven by the curriculum and by their own initiative. Principals barely ever enter a classroom. The people who end up resenting principals are usually: a) staff members b) faculty members who have been asked to leave c) parents who want better communication and/or more accountability and transparency But good happy teachers don't usually quit because they don't like the head administrator. They leave for all kinds of reasons, including involuntarily, but it would take a truly terrible principal to drive teachers to quit primarily due to "principal performance." Some people are suspicious of these posts, and I can see why. A disgruntled staffer or someone who wants the principal's job might complain about a principal being "unqualified," but the principal's qualifications wouldn't be a major concern for a teacher in good standing. And a parent might want more accountability and transparency, but the notion that three teachers would leave because of a lack of principal accountability and transparency seems weird. Anyway, I'm probably being paranoid. Let's assume that some teachers are leaving because of the principal. Can you say more about the dynamic? What is the principal doing wrong that is driving away teachers? |
Anonymous
hi. I’m the OP. And this is the first time that I have made such a post. I have done so anonymously because I don’t care to have my child be the subject for retaliation. |
Anonymous
OP here. My child is in the lower school and I know of a member of support staff, a lead teacher, and an assistant who are all leaving. |
Anonymous
| 3 people leaving in a year from 3 different jobs feels unalarming to me? |
Anonymous
| One poster is claiming 13 people leaving in a year |
Anonymous
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Website has more than 3 job listings.
And they have this one: "Elementary Grades Homeroom Teacher (Math/ Science focused) (ability to relate well to 6-9 year olds)" Kind of a weird single job posting which is calling for teachers for First, Second, Third, and Fourth Grade? I've seen this same thing at other schools. I think the schools are literally trying to downplay turnover to parents by fudging things a little bit on the help wanted board because they know parents are looking at the careers page to assess turnover! Even if they want to evaluate good candidates for multiple spots, there's no reason to aggressively downplay the fact that you have lots of openings other than trying to obscure the facts for parents and deflect blame for the school. It should say: Wanted, First, Second, Third, or Fourth Grade Teachers. Single application to be considered for multiple spots. But it doesn't say that. It says Elementary Grades Homeroom Teacher (singular). Bad marketing for candidates but perhaps good marketing for keeping the parents off your back? |
Anonymous
| I don’t know why anyone would have to go to these measures to assess turnover when they could just ask the school |
Anonymous
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Go to what measures? Check the careers page on the school website? That's faster and easier than asking the school, and it doesn't create the risk of seeming like a troublemaker by asking the administration directly about something the administration is sensitive about.
But I do think it would be interesting for someone to ask the school and see what they say. How many teachers and staff left during the year and how many teachers and staff are not returning for next year? How does this compare with prior years, and, if it's higher than normal, is there any reason for that? |
Anonymous
| Reviewing a career page on a website to calculate how many teacher they are hiring for based on a posting and saying it’s a way to “mask turnover” when it’s a simple question to ask just feels so odd and like someone is just trying to draw negative attention to the school. When students come back, staff will either be there or they won’t. It’s not some mystery. |
Anonymous
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It's just human nature, and it's a minor fudge, and it might not even be a bad idea. Administrations nowadays are BOMBARDED by parental complaints. They naturally downplay problems rather than keeping parents informed about them, because the parents have a tendency to get crazy and as a group parents can build up a head of steam over the wrong things. If there's too much turnover, the administration will handle it by finding replacements. They don't need any help or advice from the parents.
And that's why one poster thinks three people left and one poster thinks 13 people left. Because the administration doesn't necessarily want to keep parents up to date on this kind of thing. And ESPECIALLY if people are leaving because they don't like the administration for some reason. The last thing the administration wants is anyone talking about that. Again, simple human nature. "Preventing panic." Every organization is motivated to prevent panic even if it means not accurately informing people. In an ideal world, I would have the highest respect for administrators who collected turnover data including the "whys" given by leavers, and publish it for parents all the time, and admit to any administrative actions that may have enhanced turnover, and keep everyone informed about plans to improve hiring and retention. But we don't live in a world where administrators are inclined to do this. There's high turnover at some schools and lower turnover at others. But any parent at any school who asks administrators why the turnover is high at their school is guaranteed to hear that it's like that everywhere and there's no administration-related reason why anyone ever leaves. Even disgruntled teachers will instinctively say this to parents, because they know that the administration doesn't want their own role in any turnover ever mentioned. Anyway, obviously this school hasn't sent out any announcements about how many people are leaving. And, in my humble opinion, that's a weird job listing if you need to hire multiple elementary school teachers. Maybe it was just written by AI, or by someone bad at grammar or logic? Or maybe whoever maintains the career page knows instinctively that showing 13 different job listings might create another cascade of concerned parents that the principal doesn't want to hear from on this. (Or maybe they really have only one opening, but it could be for any grade because the current teachers will switch around to help a new hire get the grade he or she prefers?) Anyway, test it out. Ask how many people are leaving and probe on the question of WHY they're leaving, and see how you feel about the response. Report back! In conclusion, I think the trust you have in the administration is justified and is the right attitude. I wouldn't think the administration would usually be a reason for a teacher leaving. And I'm not trying to say there's any particular foul play here. I'm just saying that ALL schools find it hard to be totally transparent about this topic of teacher retention. |
Anonymous
| I don't teach at HTS, but at another private school. I wish I could afford to leave. My admin allowed all kinds of very serious behaviors to go on this past year. There are serious, unaddressed safety concerns in the building. Don't say that people don't leave because of administrators because we absolutely do (or wish we could). |
Anonymous
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Ah. Very interesting. That makes sense.
Reading between the lines, I'm imagining an administration allowing minority students to be disruptive, and discouraging teacher attempts at discipline/behavior modification for politically correct reasons. Or something similar. Even if my example is wrong and this has nothing to do with political correctness, I can understand this general scenario. In a way, administrators barging into your classroom aren't the problem. The problem is if they don't have your back when you need them to. Then they are not just worthless but an extreme negative influence on a teacher. And it's not just favored minorities the administration might want to exempt from consequences for bad behavior. At many schools, it's also the children of the full-pay rich donor types. The teacher might want to discipline them for classroom management purposes, but the administration will not have the teacher's back on that. And I'm now re-reading your post and seeing that you teach at a different private school than HTS. The problems I'm imagining are way worse at non-Catholic schools, because there is simultaneously more wokeness and more money-focus. And the fact that these admin preferences outweigh actual student safety concerns is terrible. This is why the country is falling apart. So many people are so focused on staying out of trouble that they will literally work hard against their own mission. School administrators now struggle to prioritize student safety over their own selfish image-management goals. |