Wayne County Public Schools officials look at teacher staffing
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 11, 2015 1:46 PM
As another school year wraps up this week, Wayne County Public Schools officials are already taking a look at its pool of educators for the fall.
"We do have more retirees this year than we had last year," Debbie Durham, director of human resources, recently told the school board's curriculum and instruction committee.
She estimated the number of retirees this year at around 70, "probably seven or nine more than last year."
Although the state has not released data from last year, Mrs. Durham said the number of highly qualified teachers is going down.
"How do we plan to change all that and how do we monitor it?" she said. "Basically, we're working with the University of Mount Olive. We get a lot of our teachers, lateral entry teachers, especially.
"They're highly qualified when they come in. We work to get them through with the program, getting a teaching license."
The district also works with interns that come out of college, with East Carolina University being the main source, she said.
"At one point they sent out three different sets of teachers. The first set would have at least 15 to 20 teachers," she said. "For the last two years I have been lucky if I had six.
"I should have gotten two sets already by this time. I received a list and only have had six teachers. Right now there's three on the second set ... and I have eight from UMO for the fall."
Recruitment efforts for teachers have taken officials to other states, with mixed results.
"We go to Michigan to recruit. They would come and stay for their three years. At the end of the three years, they'd go back to Michigan," she said. "If you didn't have experience, you couldn't get a job. They'd come here, get their experience, license, etc. and go back. And then we would start over."
They have had better luck broadening the scope.
"Pennsylvania is a state we really didn't go to but they'd come here and stay," she said. "This year we went to Pennsylvania and we have already had calls from several."
Turnover has been an ongoing issue, she said, attributing some of it to legislative changes to payroll.
"North Carolina right now is not a teacher-friendly place," she said. "When they go to South Carolina and Virginia, they can make more money and have better benefits and whatever else."
Ensuring the hires are highly qualified teachers is another dilemma, she said.
"Last year, we had 20 teachers across the system that were not highly qualified when we did the report. This year we have 50," she said. "We can say whatever we want to say. Part of it is we can't find people, part of it is also due to the fact that our principals have to be very careful about placement of teachers."
For 2014-15, WCPS had 248 beginning teachers, 94 lateral entry teachers and 50 non-highly qualified teachers. The total number of classroom teachers was 975.
The district has taken several steps to support its beginning teachers over the years, Mrs. Durham said -- from mentoring programs to its latest TLC, or Teaching and Learning Coach, effort. This year there were 34 TLCs stationed at all 31 schools. Funding cuts from the state was a setback, but Mrs. Durham was able to access EC, or exceptional children, and Title I sources to pay salaries this year.
""The ones that EC paid, those worked with students who were discipline issues, behavior issues," she said, adding, "This year I have had two high schools tell me they want full-time people next year. That would be wonderful but I don't have the funds to do full-time."
Dr. Cynthia Reynolds, director of secondary education accreditation, said the TLC program has received many accolades.
"Very few districts have a program like this," she said. "Wayne County is far ahead of a lot of other districts when you look at the support of our beginning teachers."
Dean Sauls, acting assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, called the program "the envy of the state."
Dr. Michael Dunsmore, who takes over as schools superintendent July 1, asked about evaluation of the program.
"When I started, we were in the low 80 percent percentile for beginning teachers as well as regular teachers," Mrs. Durham said. "At the highest we were at 98-something percentage, which was three years ago. Two years ago we were 97-something. The last two years the state has not done the data but the turnover rate has gone down."
In addition to retirements, other factors have contributed to teacher departures, she said, such as those connected to the military.
"We have lost a lot of teachers that way. We have also noticed that happens a lot when they go overseas (deployed) , the wives go home," she said. "Also, we lose a lot to Johnston and Wake counties because the supplements are higher. But I also have a lot that stay (in other districts) for a year or two and then come back.
"I think a third reason, I don't think we necessarily lose them but they're hard to find because up until this past year, our legislature has not been real kind to education and I think that's played a major part."
Dunsmore suggested the district "take a hard look" at all the factors. Funding, obviously, is a variable but he said he is most interested in talking to the teachers themselves.
"I'm not real keen on anonymous surveys. A lot of beginning teachers, in my opinion, want to be heard," he said, adding, "If the base has mass turnover, they're planning for that. I think we need to work a little closely with them to plan for these changes."