Resignations spur school board to seek more data

BY TIMOTHY LA ROCHE
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CLAREMONT — Following the resignations of several school administrators, the Claremont School Board began talks this week to improve the district’s employee retention efforts.

With administrators having received notice of more than 70 staff changes for next year, board members say they need more data on why employees are leaving. Not all staff changes represent employees leaving the district, but administrators estimated that district could see upwards of 120 staff changes by the end of the year.

 “There’s always going to be discord within a district — it happens everywhere — but I feel like there’s a lot of discussion about teachers leaving,” School Board Vice Chair Rebecca Zullo said. “There’s a lot of people who have left who have been vocal about the fact that it hasn’t been about money.”

Although the school district has collected exit interview information in the past, no such information exists from last year, Assistant Superintendent Cory LeClair said. The information would give board members and administrations data on why employees choose to leave the district.

“We did not conduct either exit surveys or climate and culture surveys last year,” LeClair said. “Quite honestly, I think it was just the

distribution time to get the materials out. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to, it was just one of those things that fell off the radar.”

Now, more than a month after a highly contentious budget development process concluded, board members say that such information would provide necessary context for decision-making. While board members have offered various explanations for the staff turnover, no recent quantitative data exists.

While LeClair said that previous years’ data can offer some guidance, board members discussed the possibility of giving staff a more general survey about their experiences in the district. While a decision on offering the surveys is forthcoming, board members say it could give potentially-valuable information.

“I think that information is great, but by the time we know this information, they have already left,” Board member Jason Benware said of data from exit interviews. “Maybe figuring out how they feel about their current working environment would help us retain people a little bit.”

In the last month, Claremont Middle School Principal Pauline Fitzgerald, Special Education Director Chris Beeso and Curriculum Coordinator Christine Downing submitted their resignations, effective June 30.

Although Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin said he will recommend Stevens High School Vice Principal Ben Nestor to fill Beeso’s position next year, a CMS principal search committee is still conducting interviews.

 

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