How many teachers are leaving your school next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire 4th grade team at our ES has left.

I was on a team once were 4 out of the 5 teachers left. This is a complicated question to answer because it is undoubtedly due to many variables, one of them being that those teachers were probably already considering leaving. Every once in a while, there is truly a bad group of kids (10-12 really misbehaved children spread across multiple classrooms) that just shuffle through the grades, disposing of good teachers; and without admin support, there’s no reason to stay.

I tutor a rising 6th grader in a Level IV class whose stories horrify me. The kids are constantly disruptive, multiple units behind, chase subs away by lunchtime, fights in specials, etc. She learns nothing at school and she can’t get away from these kids because there’s only one Level IV class per grade.

We had two kindergarten classrooms, 18 in each, where we had about 10 kids total who were horribly behaved, most who needed a special Ed classrooms for emotional and behavioral disabilities. It was a sh*tsh#w of a year. If I was a first grade teacher getting those kids next year, I'd quit immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20% of our staff is leaving. Approx half are leaving for typical reasons: long child rearing leave, moving, going to a different school, etc. The other 10% are leaving the field entirely. We should be able to replace all the gen Ed elementary people, probably, but I suspect our math, science, sped and bilingual classes will remain open and staffed with a revolving door of subs.

What positions do you have for math and science that aren’t gen ed?

We have a 2nd, a 3rd, two fourth, a middle school lang. arts and a middle school social studies position on top of several open positions in math, sci, bilingual and sped.

Sorry about my confusion. Does your school departmentalize as early as 2nd grade? How do the MS positions come into play?

Not sure why this is hard to understand. The 2nd-4th grade positions are elementary Gen Ed. The middle school positions are middle school, including math, science. Then we have a few bilingual openings in elementary and a few sped openings across K-8.

It was confusing because you wrote, "20% of our staff is leaving", so it sounded like you were talking about one school. You mentioned elementary gen ed along with math and science classes. Typically elementary schools don't separate math and science classes from gen ed classes. Then in the response you mentioned ES grades plus MS classes.

I doubt if I'm the only one who was (is) confused a bit. I'm still not sure if the "20% of our staff is leaving" is from one or two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the bombardment of emails and direct calls from school principals to my recent college grad (BS in Elementary Ed w/ SPED) there are a TON of openings across FCPS.

She even had a HS principal call asking what he could do to get her to come teach HS. I've also heard that there are no SPED teachers available.

She interviewed for SPED position at an ES and was hired on the spot.

With all the openings across FCPS it is very easy for a teacher who isn't 100% satisfied with their position/school to go elsewhere after only a year. I've also heard that the current "burn out" rate is at an all-time low of 3 yrs.

In the past the attrition rate for teachers was typically high only for those less desirable Title 1 area schools...and majority of new teachers usually found work there first before moving elsewhere.

Now we have that unfortunate perfect storm where there are not only fewer teachers graduating but also too many job openings available.

My first year of teaching was absolutely miserable. I barely saw my friends, I gained a bunch of weight from the stress and I was crying all the time. I’m better now but it’s difficult to decide if you are going to push through or cut your losses and move on. Very, very few people have to personality, skill set, and the willingness to sacrifice needed to be a public school teacher and you need all three of those things.

My first 25 years weren’t like that. 4 of my last 5 however…

Same. My first 20 years were good. Most of the past 7 were like this. I’m counting the years until retirement now.

PP here.
For my first 25 years or so I had planned on teaching at least 33 years, without a doubt. I stopped last year after 30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

Most people can't just up and quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20% of our staff is leaving. Approx half are leaving for typical reasons: long child rearing leave, moving, going to a different school, etc. The other 10% are leaving the field entirely. We should be able to replace all the gen Ed elementary people, probably, but I suspect our math, science, sped and bilingual classes will remain open and staffed with a revolving door of subs.

What positions do you have for math and science that aren’t gen ed?

We have a 2nd, a 3rd, two fourth, a middle school lang. arts and a middle school social studies position on top of several open positions in math, sci, bilingual and sped.

Sorry about my confusion. Does your school departmentalize as early as 2nd grade? How do the MS positions come into play?

Not sure why this is hard to understand. The 2nd-4th grade positions are elementary Gen Ed. The middle school positions are middle school, including math, science. Then we have a few bilingual openings in elementary and a few sped openings across K-8.

It’s confusing because when you said “our staff” many of the readers assumed that was one school you appear to be referring to multiple schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

Maybe it's from dealing with parents like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire 4th grade team at our ES has left.

I was on a team once were 4 out of the 5 teachers left. This is a complicated question to answer because it is undoubtedly due to many variables, one of them being that those teachers were probably already considering leaving. Every once in a while, there is truly a bad group of kids (10-12 really misbehaved children spread across multiple classrooms) that just shuffle through the grades, disposing of good teachers; and without admin support, there’s no reason to stay.

+1 disrespect and lack of support for teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire 4th grade team at our ES has left.

I was on a team once were 4 out of the 5 teachers left. This is a complicated question to answer because it is undoubtedly due to many variables, one of them being that those teachers were probably already considering leaving. Every once in a while, there is truly a bad group of kids (10-12 really misbehaved children spread across multiple classrooms) that just shuffle through the grades, disposing of good teachers; and without admin support, there’s no reason to stay.

I tutor a rising 6th grader in a Level IV class whose stories horrify me. The kids are constantly disruptive, multiple units behind, chase subs away by lunchtime, fights in specials, etc. She learns nothing at school and she can’t get away from these kids because there’s only one Level IV class per grade.

We had two kindergarten classrooms, 18 in each, where we had about 10 kids total who were horribly behaved, most who needed a special Ed classrooms for emotional and behavioral disabilities. It was a sh*tsh#w of a year. If I was a first grade teacher getting those kids next year, I'd quit immediately.

Yup we lost a good SPED teacher this way....she had a caseload of all the behaviors in lower grades and it was quite the caseload-she left SPED. Don't blame her she was used and abused that year-total lack of support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

She’s probably waiting out her pension or needs the health insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

She’s probably waiting out her pension or needs the health insurance.

There is a teacher at my school with clear medical issues that are causing her to struggle. She is still two years out from full retirement so she is doing the minimum and constantly taking off work (I don’t blame her).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20% of our staff is leaving. Approx half are leaving for typical reasons: long child rearing leave, moving, going to a different school, etc. The other 10% are leaving the field entirely. We should be able to replace all the gen Ed elementary people, probably, but I suspect our math, science, sped and bilingual classes will remain open and staffed with a revolving door of subs.

What positions do you have for math and science that aren’t gen ed?

We have a 2nd, a 3rd, two fourth, a middle school lang. arts and a middle school social studies position on top of several open positions in math, sci, bilingual and sped.

See, here’s why people are confused by your post — who is “we”? All of these levels are not in a single school. So are you talking about multiple schools? A private school? Another school district? The schools your kids attend? It sounds like you’re lumping elementary, middle, and HS into one post. If you are referring to FCPS, it’s many hundreds of vacancies, not just these few. Understand why it’s confusing to the reader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20% of our staff is leaving. Approx half are leaving for typical reasons: long child rearing leave, moving, going to a different school, etc. The other 10% are leaving the field entirely. We should be able to replace all the gen Ed elementary people, probably, but I suspect our math, science, sped and bilingual classes will remain open and staffed with a revolving door of subs.

What positions do you have for math and science that aren’t gen ed?

We have a 2nd, a 3rd, two fourth, a middle school lang. arts and a middle school social studies position on top of several open positions in math, sci, bilingual and sped.

Sorry about my confusion. Does your school departmentalize as early as 2nd grade? How do the MS positions come into play?

Not sure why this is hard to understand. The 2nd-4th grade positions are elementary Gen Ed. The middle school positions are middle school, including math, science. Then we have a few bilingual openings in elementary and a few sped openings across K-8.

It’s confusing because when you said “our staff” many of the readers assumed that was one school you appear to be referring to multiple schools.

Nope one k-8 school.

[Anonymous]

Ah, I see I've posted in wrong forum. I should be in general education posts. My school is k-8. And yeah, the losses are huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

She’s probably waiting out her pension or needs the health insurance.

There is a teacher at my school with clear medical issues that are causing her to struggle. She is still two years out from full retirement so she is doing the minimum and constantly taking off work (I don’t blame her).

I'm a parent, not a teacher, but this is one fairly unique aspect of teaching. All professionals, even the most committed, have times when life interferes with their ability to do their jobs. We all muddle througH, and usually get support from managers and co-workers to keep things running smoothly. However, teachers experiencing problems like health issues, personal tragedy, or other expected challenges that everyone faces are so unsupported. If I were fixing the system, I would want there to be some layer of backup to support teachers experiencing issues that interfere with their ability to do their jobs. Extra support would take pressure off the individual teacher and avoid having an entire cohort of students missing out on essential instruction. It should not be a criticism of individual teachers to admit that sometimes, life gets in the way of work. Denying that a checked-out, chronically absent, or struggling teacher is not as effective as a healthy one is a disservice to the profession and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ES only announced 4-5 teachers in the end of year email, but I suppose more could always quit over the summer.

I was very surprised my child's teacher is returning; she's clearly been checked out since around Thanksgiving.

She’s probably waiting out her pension or needs the health insurance.

There is a teacher at my school with clear medical issues that are causing her to struggle. She is still two years out from full retirement so she is doing the minimum and constantly taking off work (I don’t blame her).

I'm a parent, not a teacher, but this is one fairly unique aspect of teaching. All professionals, even the most committed, have times when life interferes with their ability to do their jobs. We all muddle througH, and usually get support from managers and co-workers to keep things running smoothly. However, teachers experiencing problems like health issues, personal tragedy, or other expected challenges that everyone faces are so unsupported. If I were fixing the system, I would want there to be some layer of backup to support teachers experiencing issues that interfere with their ability to do their jobs. Extra support would take pressure off the individual teacher and avoid having an entire cohort of students missing out on essential instruction. It should not be a criticism of individual teachers to admit that sometimes, life gets in the way of work. Denying that a checked-out, chronically absent, or struggling teacher is not as effective as a healthy one is a disservice to the profession and students.

This is a relatively new problem. 10-12 years ago, we had teachers that were out because of cancer, had a baby, had a spouse die, or was going through some other life-changing event. 90% of the time when that teacher needed to go out they were replaced (normally on Day 1) with a qualified sub who had been working at the school for years, a recently retired teacher, or replaced by a teacher that a just moved to the area. In many cases that transition was practically seamless. This is unheard of now. This profession is changing so rapidly I don’t want to imagine what it will be like 10 years from now.