By Lindsay Peyton

A large number of teachers in Highline Public Schools are hanging their hats after this year – and parents and community members are taking note.

“Teacher turnover is off the charts,” parent Stuart Jenner said.

He keeps tabs on the number of faculty members resigning in the school board agendas each month. “I’m seeing the list get longer and longer,” he said. “It’s really sobering. The morale also seems a lot lower, and that’s discouraging.”

Catherine Carbone Rogers, chief communications officer for the district, maintains that the number of resigning teachers is actually not out of the ordinary.

“It’s not dramatically higher than in years past or than in our neighboring districts,” she said. “We have a higher number of teachers. Our teacher base is bigger, but our percentage leaving is actually going down.”

She explained that during the 2015-2016 school year, there were 1,419 staff members with 145 resignations, or an 11.1 percent turnover.

For the 2014-2015 school year, the headcount was 1,362 and there were 132 resignations or an 11.6 percent turnover. The previous year, out of 1,314 staff members, 140 resigned, a 12.9 percent turnover.

In nearby Federal Way, the turnover rate is 12.6 percent for the 2015-2016 school year, with 172 out of 1,549 staff members resigning. This year in Kent, there were 119 resignations out of 1,876 staff members, a 7.6 percent turnover.

Still, Sue McCabe, president of Highline Education Association, a professional organization representing 1,300 teachers, said there is increasing concern about the turnover rate. 

She said that 16 more resignations were finalized on June 22, bringing the number closer to 170.

“Long-term stability in schools is extremely important for students and staff,” she said.  “Regardless of the number of resignations, educators want to focus on the feedback offered in the climate survey and exit survey to inform our system of needed changes and improvements.  We look forward to working with the district in utilizing that input as we create schools that will provide stability for students, families and staff.” 

Carbone Rogers said that the district keeps tabs on why teachers decide to resign.
“There are a billion different personal reasons why people have chosen to leave,” she said. “We encourage them to complete an exit survey. We try to get a feel for what the issues are.”

Some faculty members leave due to the high demands of the job, Carbone Rogers added. “Teaching is hard work,” she said. “We have high standards for our teachers at Highline, and we have ambitious goals for our students. We want to have staff who are committed to those goals.”

She said the district hopes to retain staff – and has offered a pay raise in the past year. “We’re committed to competitive pay for our teachers,” she said. “We want to keep teachers – and we want to perform at high standards.”

A few teachers have complained about district facilities in their exit surveys. “We do have a number of old facilities,” Carbone Rogers said. “We haven’t passed a bond in the district for 10 years.”

She said the district is in the process of creating a plan and considering whether to move forward with a bond in the near future. In the meantime, she encourages teachers and community members to voice their concerns and provide input to the district.

“We’re always open to feedback,” she said. “You can email the school board, come to a school board meeting or directly email the superintendent.”

Meg Van Wyk still attends school board meetings, even though her three children graduated from the district. She has also kept in touch with a number of the teachers.

“The last three years or so, they’ve had a lot of new systems placed on their laps,” she said. “The teacher evaluation is extremely cumbersome and it doesn’t help them. It’s added two hours to their day.”

She said additional stress has been placed on teachers due to larger class sizes, the state’s new initiative called the Common Core Standards and a requirement for 24 credits for graduation.

Van Wyk believes the district’s new strategic plan has been taxing on faculty as well. “This requires an entire new way to handle discipline and use of technology, all of which requires more time from the teachers,” she said.

In the meantime, Van Wyk said the district faces underfunding by the state. “Without proper funding, the school facilities are inadequate, supplies are poor, staff needed to implement things like the strategic plan are stretched,” she said.

Karen Adlum retired from the district last year. “The biggest reason why I was unhappy is because teachers have lost their autonomy,” she said. “The federal mandates have taken the joy out of teaching. It’s just demoralizing.”

Adlum said that the amount of work associated with the teacher evaluations is daunting. “It feels like you are trying to prove to the system that you’re a good teacher,” she said. “It’s not very supportive.”

While the mandates come at the state or federal level, Adlum believes the district could do more to stand by the teachers.

“We didn’t feel heard last year when we voiced our concerns,” she said. “Some people were afraid of retaliation. Some people were brave and spoke out anyway – but it didn’t make a difference.”

Adlum, who remains part of a teachers’ activist group, encourages others to speak out about the issues facing them in the classroom.

“I would also ask the district to bring teachers to the table and really listen to them,” she said. “Find out from the teachers how the mandates are playing out in the classroom.”

And Adlum implores community to read up about what’s going on in their schools. “If it’s 30 or 130 teachers, you still have to ask why,” she said. “This is a profession where historically people don’t leave. This is a career people typically stay in for a lifetime. What is causing this exodus?”