CCS mulls teaching challenges

A simple question concerning graphs on Clinton City School’s school performance grades turned into an unintended hour-long discussion among Board of Education members over teachers.

“If you look at sixth grade reading and math, because those two graphs are in direct opposition to the others we’re looking at … meaning, pre-pandemic versus the first year testing afterwards, we did better after the pandemic than we are now,” board member Clark Hales said. “So I guess my question is, what can we attribute that to? Was there any discrepancies with the rigor of any testing or, at those grade levels, are we drilling down to maybe what worked in 2021-22 to get back to those type of results.”

That was the statement and question Hales posed during the board’s July monthly meeting that sparked a lengthy talk into teachers. The inquiry came up as the board was looking at the embargoed information on the school system’s 2023-24 data review on Grade Level Proficiency (GLF) and its school performance grades across CCS.

That information itself, is tied to NC Department of Public Instruction’s School Report Cards which, according to www.dpi.nc.gov, “are an important resource for parents, educators, state leaders, researchers, and others, providing information about school- and district-level data in a number of areas. These include student performance and academic growth, school and student characteristics, and many other details.”

The meeting shifted into the talks about teachers after Dr. Theresa Melenas, executive director of Instructional Services, responded to Hales’ question, partially attributing the down numbers to teacher attrition.

“Dr. Johnson and I have conversations about this and I think part of it is attrition of staff and staff turnover,” she said, “knowing that a lot of the teachers we’re hiring now are coming to us without degrees in education. And so, we’re taking residence teachers and not only teaching them how to teach, but also teaching them the content in which they need to teach.”

“With all those factors considered, again, I think turnover attributes to a lot of what we’re seeing in the numbers here.”

“If 2022-23 and 2023-24 are indicative of less experience in the building, in the classroom, at a particular school, then I think it’s incumbent on the six of us to do whatever is necessary to retain quality teachers to reflect the numbers of 2021-22,” Hales relayed. “Let’s start thinking outside the box in how to retain talent because there are things we can do that we are not doing to retain that talent in the classroom.”

The subject of improving teacher recruitment of high quality teachers through various means was broached as a solution to address Hales’ remarks. That, however, was strongly opposed as a reason for lowered school performance.

“We currently only have four teaching vacancies and I’d put that up against anybody in the state,” Dr. Wesley Johnson, CCS Superintendent, emphasized. “Tonight, we hired six teachers. If I’m looking correctly, all six are fully licensed, fully certified and I believe all six have previous experience from another district. So I want to let you know, we are doing everything you’re talking and asking about.

“I mean, four vacancies, if you compare that to any other district in the state of North Carolina, I’d say we’re doing all that we can and I think we’re doing a great job,” Johnson continued. “There are other avenues we can do, of course, but I don’t want to leave this meeting with us thinking that the work is not being done to recruit quality teachers.”

Sheila Peterson, executive director of Human Resources, was also adamant about teacher recruiting not being a concern related to down numbers.

“Our recruitment team works 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Peterson attested. “We’re in grocery stores, in town, talking to folks, communicating with others, all to get people here. That’s why we have been so successful over the past six years with trying to get folks in the building. Once we get them in the building, we have to mold them into what we want them to be and even with our tenured teachers. Everybody can learn something, and everybody can grow, but we’re not where we need to be.

“Sometimes, it’s because we just need a new environment; we need to be motivated. So our recruitment and retention team has been actively working and I’m sorry if you don’t see it, but it’s there and it’s all the time. I do agree, we have to keep them here and we have to keep them engaged so we’re working on that particular piece. Again, we can get them here, but it’s just keeping them here when there’s so many other opportunities that come up.”

According to Peterson, retaining high level teachers has become the main source of issues tied to lack of teacher performance in a given school. She gave a number of factors that have led to that becoming an issue, whether leaving to pursue teaching in bigger cities, leaving the profession all together, lack of pay and other factors.

For CCS, Peterson said retirement has brought the worst of it.

“I don’t know if you’ve realized it or not, but over the past six years that I’ve been here, the retirement banquet has gotten bigger and bigger as we go,” Peterson stated. “We had this year, if I’m not mistaken, 16 teachers and one administrator that retired, and so, you have to replace that because we have more coming. On that front, we have a succession plan of how we’re going to combat that. So most of our vacancies, to be honest with you, are retirees, and to me, if I’m at 30 or 31 years, I’m ready. Even if you dangle $5,000 in front of me, I don’t think that will make me stay, and so just looking at that, not this summer, but in previous years, most of our vacancies have come from retirees.”

“As you just mentioned, we are bringing teachers in, so I’m going to retract any of my previous comments about recruiting,” Oscar Rodriguez, board member, remarked to Peterson statements. “If we’re bringing them in, then kudos to you and your team on getting them here, but also like you said, we’re not retaining them. Is there any way to identify the factors that are causing them to leave? Then we can create plans to try to mitigate that. We can‘t solve everything like you said — the money, having a master’s, things like that — but what can we do as a system to not lose good teachers?”

That question led to a host of brainstorming, from plans to deal with teachers leaving, ways of discovering why teachers want to leave and how to remedy them; to the board being more present in the schools, hosting meetings with teachers, as a group and individually, at their respective schools to foster better relationships between CCS staff and administration.

Talks went on for a while before Hales reeled it all back in.

“I guess I’m to blame for starting this hour-long conversation because I was just asking Dr. Melenas about a graph,” Hales said as the board all laughed. “I want to be clear, when I asked that question, it wasn’t to critique our recruiting processes or anything of that nature. It was to simply ask, what did we do well (in) 2021-22, that defies what we’ve been told about everything being COVID’s fault.

“So that was my point. What did we do well in that year, in those tested subjects, that defies, I would say state average — which was our improved test scores — the first year after COVID, because we did something great,” said Hales. “Because, I mean, in both reading and math for sixth though eight grade, on this four-year trend, the best numbers are the first year after the pandemic.”