By Sarah Vogelsong
CP Reporter
Caroline students returning to school Aug. 17 were greeted by more familiar faces this year than last, thanks to a dramatic decrease in teacher and administrator attrition.
Of 322 professional (teacher and administrator) positions in 2014–15, only 56 had to be filled for the 2015–16 year, compared to 82 new professional hires at the beginning of the previous year.
“We had fewer people retire,” said Caroline County Public Schools’ Director of Human Resources Debra Holt. “Fewer people were hired elsewhere. Fewer people moved.”
Data from the past seven school years show an average attrition rate of 16 percent each year for teachers and administrators (or, viewed in the reverse, an average retention rate of 84 percent). Annual rates have remained generally close to that average, although some years have been lower—in 2009–10, the attrition rate was 12 percent—and some higher.
Even with expected fluctuations, though, the 2013–14 school year stands out among the past seven years, with a staggering 23.9 percent of professional staff departing CCPS over the course of or by the end of that school year.
Holt told the Progress that it is difficult to know exactly why attrition numbers fluctuate, given the variety of reasons individuals have for leaving. CCPS does survey departing employees about the impetus for their decision, but the surveys are not mandatory, and so the division’s information in this area is incomplete.
Still, she said, “I think the new salary scale helped a lot” last year.
Revision of the division’s teacher salary scale was one of the School Board’s key initiatives in the past year. Despite a lesser budget allocation from the Board of Supervisors than hoped for, the School Board brought up the salary scale overall and pushed every CCPS teacher up a step to make its salaries more competitive with those offered elsewhere in the region.
Besides the inducement of more money, possible factors contributing to the lower attrition rate include the offering of additional professional development and the practice of assigning each new teacher a mentor to offer guidance during their first year with CCPS.
“Even if you come from another county, you still have to learn the Caroline way,” said Holt, “just like if you went to another county, you’d have to learn their way.”
Although data for each of the division’s five schools are not regularly tracked, Holt provided the Progress with figures for the past two years showing the largest number of new teachers at Caroline Middle School and Caroline High School.
The numbers for these two schools, she noted in a summary, “tend to be higher because of specialized subjects that are hard to staff,” such as physics, English as a second language, upper-level math, special education, foreign languages and career and technical education.
Employee attrition is a significant concern for many school districts and in recent years has particularly plagued Caroline, which has lost teachers to Spotsylvania, Stafford, King George, Hanover and Henrico counties on a regular basis.
“Anytime you bring a new employee in, there’s more work on everyone,” said Holt.
Nor are only professional staff—teachers and administrators—affected. Support staff also provide key stability to any division. According to CCPS Department of Human Resources data, attrition among this group has been almost consistently lower than that for professional hires, with an average rate of 12 percent annually. As with professional staff, the lowest rate of departure appears in 2009–10, when it dipped to 9 percent, but no spike similar to that seen among teachers and administrators occurred in 2013–14, when the classified staff attrition rate remained at 11 percent.
For the first time in seven years, support staff attrition outstripped teacher and administrator attrition, reaching 15 percent—despite a 2.5 pay increase instituted by the School Board as part of the 2015–16 budget and other adjustments to pay for various groups, such as bus drivers.
CCPS, said Holt, continues to work to keep attrition rates down when it can.
“It’s beneficial to everyone if you can have a stable environment where they stay,” she said.
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