Why Are Coatesville Teachers Leaving in Droves?

Although I was born and raised in Downingtown and for the past twenty years have taught in the Downingtown Area School District, I chose to raise my family in the Coatesville Area School District. I made this choice mainly due to my experience teaching 3rd grade at Benner Elementary school. The teachers I worked with were the most dedicated and hard-working group of professionals that I have ever had the opportunity to work with, even to this day. 

I am passionate about our school district and the education of our children. I have been coming to Coatesville School Board meetings for a number of years. Through my experiences, I have had the opportunity to meet many others who are as passionate as I am. Together we started CCAP. 

Although we have many wonderful programs, activities, dedicated principals, custodians and support staff, teachers are the foundation of any school district. Our teachers go above and beyond on a daily basis when it comes to meeting not only the academic needs of our students, but basic needs as well. For example, when a 1st grader didn’t have money for a field trip, it was his elementary teacher who quietly paid for him. When a student had holes in his shoes, his middle school special ed. teacher went and purchased him new Converse. When it’s PSSAs and the kids are knowingly going to be frustrated and drained, it’s our teachers who bring in snacks, to keep their spirits high and energy up. These are actual examples of what our teachers have done this year. You say you have not heard this? Of course not, because our teachers do these things all the time, because they LOVE our children. When you hear a teacher say “my kids”…they mean their students. They think of their students as if they were their own children.

So, why are our teachers leaving our district?

You will hear many reasons from the administration as to the why this turnover is occurring. Administration will happily tell you teachers have left for either more money, better benefit coverage, or “personal reasons.” The fact is our teachers are leaving Coatesville primarily because of the working conditions. Each day many of our teachers enter a work environment that is unstable, antagonistic, exhausting, and downright intimidating.  Here are some of the challenges our teachers face and the contributing factors causing them to leave Coatesville:

Although there truly is a lack of substitute teachers across the entire state of Pennsylvania, this shortage has been severally compounded in Coatesville. When we are unable to get subs to cover classes, it results in our own teachers having to cover classes. At the elementary level, this means that our special area teachers (music, art, P.E., and library) are being pulled from their classrooms to sub. This results in our students not having their special for the day, and this can continue for multiple days - special area teachers often struggle to keep up with teaching their own curriculum. Also, classroom teachers struggle when they don’t get the proper planning time essential to ensure a strong academic classroom.

The removal of resource rooms has been felt by all throughout our district.  Though we believe in the philosophy of inclusion and know how it can be a wonderful situation if implemented and modeled correctly - we also know that it can be devastating for a district if it is not done correctly.   Our district has sadly ignored the community’s concerns about how inclusion is being practiced.   By including all students in the general education curriculum, it has caused our apprentice learners to fall further behind and our advanced learners to miss out on opportunities to enhance their skills. The removal of these classrooms has also taken away the one-to-one time that many of our apprentice learners need for social and emotional support.

In the last four years another huge concern among teachers have been the lack of consequences for disciplinary issues that occur in our schools. The consequences are inconsistent student-to-student, for the same violation. Teachers are being “talked to” for having “too many write-ups” by their building administrators.  To make matters worse, there has been many instances where after a student has been suspended, it gets overturned by one of our top administrators. When this happens it undermines our teachers along with the building principal’s authority, which then creates an environment of chaos and disrespect.  It also does not help our students change their behavior.

Many of our teachers feel and in fact are being bullied into working after hour events along with signing up for summer training when the are supposed to be off work. They are told it’s their “professional responsibility” and they should “do it for the kids.” If they do not sign up or attend these optional events, they are told they “are not a team player.” Then, when the scheduled time for professional development comes during the school year, those who attended training in the summer are given the option to miss a paid professional development day - even though the training being presented is different than what they attended during the summer. As a consequence, we pay teachers twice even when they don't attend both trainings, and not all teachers receive the training administered during professional development days held during the school year.

Our teachers are often treated unprofessionally and with little respect.  Many teachers have been told how to arrange their classrooms (and rated poorly during observations if they fail to comply), how to present the curriculum, and have even been given scripts on what to say and how to say it during board meeting presentations. When many of our teachers seek help or guidance from administration, teachers have often been told to “go ask their colleagues” or that they should already know because it is “their professional responsibility.”

Involuntary transfers of teachers are at an all-time high in CASD.  Can a teacher be involuntarily transferred? Of course. However the question everyone should really be asking is -should some of these teachers be transferred? Just because a teacher has a certification in special ed from 25 years ago, doesn’t mean they would be a strong special ed teacher today. Taking an influential, strong male, middle school math teacher to whom our kids relate very well to and transferring him to an elementary position makes little sense to those he was impacting the most.  

Each time a teacher is transferred into a new building, subject or grade level, whether the administration acknowledges it or not, these moves can create a negative effect not only for the teachers, but our students as well.  Moves like this tend to destroy employee morale, leaving teachers feeling vulnerable and unsafe.  Students also feel the impact of these transfers when they no longer have their mentor and/or favorite teachers around to talk to. Kids in many cases no longer have the teachers who are most familiar with their age or appropriate academic ability. It takes teachers many years to master the content and the needs of a specific group of students. Advanced courses like AP classes are difficult to teach, and teachers and students benefit when the AP teachers have substantial experience teaching the college board curriculum and have attended AP training. Not only do these transfers create an unstable and inconsistent environment for our kids, it is also disruptive and almost always unnecessary.  

Below is data on the transfers that have occurred over the past six years at CASD.
(teachers who were transferred due to Friendship closing are not included in the chart numbers but are listed separately in the table)

2014 – 2015	2015 – 2016	2016 – 2017	2017 – 2018	2018 – 2019 (it’s only May)
1 Vol. transfer 2 Inv. mental health specialist moved buildings	5 Vol. Transfers 3 reading specialists moved to classrooms 1 reading specialist moved from elementary to middle school 3 from closure of turning point 1 PE teacher - now covering 3 buildings.	5 Vol. Transfers 1 PE teacher moved from elementary to HS 14 transfers affected by the HS separation	2 Vol. Transfers 31 involuntary transfers before school began, most moving buildings. Some also moved grade levels.	8 Vol. Transfers 25 Friendship Transfers 29 involuntary transfers – 3 of these teachers resigned rather than take the transfer

Now, let me address the fact that many of those involuntary transfers were not done by seniority and certification. This in part, has resulted in our high teacher turnover. 

Below is the number of teachers who have left the district over the last six years: 

Please Note:  Since it is only April, the percentage for this year projected to be 19% on a pro forma basis. It's also worth noting that according to The Learning Policy Institute, the average teacher turnover rate in PA is 9%

Our teachers are the backbone of our schools.  They need to be treated with respect and professionalism. They need to be given supports instead of letters in their file for spreading a rumor or tapping a student on the head to say “great job”. They need to be fully trained in the programs they are expected to teach, tests they are expected to administer, and given expectations ahead of time so that they can meet them adequately. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (the contract between the School Board and the Teachers) needs to be followed, not ignored, as this is a legal document. If our administration does not start showing our teachers appreciation and allowing them to use their expertise, we will continue to lose the foundation of our district, our teachers.

Written By Katie Hadzor