Hear the truth from those who have left CASD

Last year, I attended meeting after meeting where I heard Mr. Fisher express disappointment at another fabulous educator leaving the district. As I shared his concerns, I also started tracking and analyzing teacher turnover. I took my data back to 2014, when Dr. Taschner arrived, and tracked every full time hire, resignation, transfer, and other job change for CATA and administration members. The results were shocking. The number of teachers leaving was high and growing. The turnover rate had doubled from 8% to more than 16% under Dr. Taschner and continued to climb.

As we noted when we shared Andria Johnson's exit interview, Mr. Fisher repeatedly asked for exit interview data from the district administration. What he received didn't seem to satisfy him. And when I personally spoke to teachers who had left, I discovered that many of them hadn't even done an exit interview, or were afraid to be completely honest on one if they did complete it. I thought - what if we created our OWN exit interview and sent it to all the people who left? And what if we asked questions that would result not just in comments, but give us DATA to understand why people were leaving more quickly than in the past?

During the time period from the beginning of 2015 (shortly after Dr. Taschner's arrival) and the first few months of the 2018-2019 school year, approximately 260 CATA or Admin staff left the district. Of those 260, we had 98 respond, which was 37% of the target audience, and 50% of those who had left in the most recent three years. We received the most responses from elementary and special education/gifted teachers, both significant areas of turnover in the district. 

One key part of the survey was a question on employee satisfaction. We asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with CASD in the year leading up to their departure. The results weren't pretty. More than 75% of those responding were dissatisfied with an average response that fell somewhere between mostly and very dissatisfied.

And unlike the administration would like us to believe, the reasons people left were not usually for shorter commutes or more pay. People left because of poor management by someone on their supervisory team, emotional health concerns, or a desire to be in a district with greater stability. Several more indicated they disagreed with the educational practices in the district. Digging into the comments showed that unethical requests, being bullied by administrators, and discipline were among the most cited reason. When we asked those surveyed to choose just ONE option from the list, emotional health concerns got the highest number of votes, while pay dropped from #5 to #6.

We asked those surveyed what could have made a difference and prevented them from leaving. Improved leadership support and a CHANGE in leadership were the most cited items, combining for 40% of the responses. 

Finally, SO FEW PEOPLE were offered a chance to do an exit interview. Of the 98 surveyed, 40 did not even have a chance to do an exit interview! How could the data being given to the school board be valid if people didn't have the opportunity to complete an exit interview when they left?

We were distressed by these results, but were not sure how to present them. I considered getting on the school board agenda, or trying to present it at public comment, but it didn't seem like my past attempts to influence the board using these methods had been effective. But when we started the CCAP blog, I finally had the opportunity to bring this survey and its results to the community so that you can all see not just individual stories, but the broader data that tells us why we have a retention problem with our teaching staff. You can see the complete survey and all of the anonymous comments here. 

I'll share a few of the comments that moved me the most below:

"While I was there I shared my concerns with several administrators, including Dr. Taschner, and no changes were implemented."

"Over the past few years I believe negativity and a sense of fear have grown in the district. That’s not an environment I feel I can excel in as a teaching professional. I would never want that to affect the students. They deserve you at your best every day."

"Now that I am in a new district with a very similar population (very diverse Title 1 school), I am wowed by how different things can be simply based on the climate of the school and trust in the teachers. CASD teachers NEED to be trusted and supported by their administrators. There needs to be an air of trust and confidence in the wonderful professionals that they are, instead of the distrust that is conveyed in so many ways. This distrust is evident from the lockdown on WiFi and technology (i.e. teachers can't even change their background, or have access to the Wi-Fi password), to the dictation of schedules and other important decisions without teacher input, to the 'gotcha' observations, to the attitude that if support is needed for a student due to behavior that it's the teacher's management failure, and so much more. Working at CASD has truly scarred me, and I am struggling to regain confidence that never should have been lost. I chose to leave because it was affecting my emotional health due to the high levels of stress and lack of support, but I had no idea how toxic a work environment it truly was until I started my new position. Conversely now I am in a place where I am valued and trusted as I should be as an expert in my field with a master's degree. In my new school, observations are a time for growth and suggestions, we are trusted with technology, and our administrators support us with   behaviorally struggling students because they believe that we are all there to help the students to be successful. I don't know how a school climate can be changed easily, but it needs to begin with trust in the teachers!"

"An acknowledgment of disciplinary issues, building health issues, poor administrative issues, and a willingness to actually address them. I always intended to teach until I was 65, but could no longer work in a district where serious problems were ignored (or worse, admin claimed they didn’t exist) and teachers were given no professional respect. A different board and central administration could have made the difference."

"I am very sad to have left after 29 years in the same school. I just could not abide with the things i was hearing about micromanagement of Dr Taschner and the shaming culture she was creating. I saw that my principals were not trusted to be creative or take initiative without her permission. She snuffed out their healthy attempts to address trauma in our students. The resources for students were scant and new ideas were not encouraged. My budget was meager and I spent between $1000 and $2000 of my own for the last several years. Severe behavior was on the rise without a plan or input from admin. PBIS (a tried nat'l program for creating a positive climate/culture in schools) was overlooked even though there was support from the IU for it."

"I left my position as a psychologist, as several other psychologists did within the span of a year, because of concerns with what we were being asked to do and the lack of special education that were being provided to the students.  None of us would have looked for another job if our concerns had been addressed, but they were not. Although I knew that I was getting paid far less than I would have at other districts, that was not an issue; however, when I made the decision to leave, I was offered 15,000 more than I was earning at CASD. Prior to working at CASD, I worked as in several hospitals and private practices as well as doing contract work for more than ten difference school districts and CASD was the most disorganized place I have ever worked."

"I was a special ed teacher for 32 years. I taught mostly Life Skills students. My schedule was changed at the beginning of the 2017-18 year, and I was given 2 sections of Electronic Journalism to teach, with no curriculum, no lesson plans, and no training or experience. I could not keep up with my students' complex Transition needs (overseeing job placements and other special programming), IEPs, etc. and I was overwhelmed with 2 sections of the new classes (regular ed) that were over-filled. I asked for help and received no response nor relief. I was working weekends at the school and every night until midnight or later. I was anxious, depressed, and afraid that I was going to lose my health over the stress and lack of support. I had to "save" myself and abandon my commitment to the Life Skills students, parents, and program, and it was a very hard decision to make. I could not see being able to stay until I had completed 35 years, and I took a medical leave in early October, 2017 and then retired in January of 2018 when I realized my mental health was not worth jeopardizing by returning. I believe the "Life Skills" program no longer exists in any real capacity and coteaching in regular education for those students is not appropriate. There is no way to teach functional skills within the coteaching setting, because high school curriculum in math and English is too advanced and not appropriate for the needs of most Life Skills students."

"The year that I resigned, I went out on maternity leave for about 3 months.  The district was made aware of my leave months in advance yet failed to secure a long-term substitute.  While on maternity leave, my students received “services” from day to day subs and teacher coverages, none of whom were certified in special education.  IEPs went out of compliance and progress monitoring/reports were not completed.  Had this not happened, I might not have left (at least not at that point).  It broke my heart that my students didn’t receive the services that they were entitled to.  This was the first year that building principals were in charge of overseeing special education.  Teachers were no longer allowed to have direct contact with special ed. admin."