Teacher resignations are up but 'not devastating'

MUNCIE, Ind. — For weeks, teachers at Muncie Community Schools have been sending up flares.

"Unprecedented" numbers of teachers are resigning. "Unheard of" numbers of them. It's a "mass exodus." MCS is "hemorrhaging" teachers. They're "jumping the sinking ship." Leaving "by the dozens."

The school corporation responded to the SOS with data at a school board meeting on Friday.

"I don't do guesstimates or estimates," Assistant Superintendent DiLynn Phelps said in a presentation to the board. "I do data … Nobody else has it …and nobody else has asked for it."

Teacher turnover is common at MCS and other schools. According to Phelps, there were 74 teacher resignations at MCS, including retirements, for the year ending June 30, 2014. In 2015, the number was 72, and in 2016 it was 80.

That's an average of 75 resignations per year.

For the year ending June 30, 2017, resignations at MCS totaled 102, including more than two dozen presented to the board on Friday.

That's 27 more resignations than average and 36 percent higher than average.

The Star Press asked Phelps after the meeting to characterize the increase. Light? Moderate? Severe? 

"The numbers are right there," she said. "And I'm not going to try to make somebody some kind of conclusion. I have to deal with numbers."

Asked the same question, school board President Debbie Feick answered, "Is it as devastating as folks like to project? No … It's a little bit elevated but it isn't drastically elevated … It's still pretty consistent with the patterns."

She also called for a cease fire between teachers and the school corporation.

"I think we need to partner as teachers, administrators and school board to promote what's right about our district," she told The Star Press. "Why destroy more trust and confidence in parents and families …? That can impact our enrollment, which in turn impacts the number of teachers we can employ, which impacts her as association leader."

She was speaking of Pat Kennedy, president of Muncie Teachers Association.

Feick added: "I think emotions are running so high that folks aren't being real logical — probably on 'get-even' kind of mode right now. We just need to let that rest for awhile so we can rebuild relationships."

A lengthy collective-bargaining dispute between the corporation and teachers ended recently with a victory for the teachers before the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board. The corporation was seeking retroactive pay cuts.

In addition, a state-appointed emergency manager is taking control over the school after the legislature declared MCS "fiscally impaired."

Kennedy has blamed this year's increased turnover in teachers on the school board's and Superintendent Steve Baule's "slash-and-burn approach" to deficit reduction and on other factors, including lack of transparency and failure to include teachers in decision making.

Asked to respond to Feick's comment about not getting along, Kennedy said: "I lay that at their doorstep. We did not stop collaborating and we did not stop the conversation. They did."

Kennedy earlier has estimated to The Star Press that teacher resignations including retirements averaged 35 in recent years. According to the school district's data, the average is actually 75 per year, which doesn't make this year's 102 resignations sound as bad.

"I guess I want to see the names and who they are counting," Kennedy said. "I've been doing this a long time. We track teachers every year, the names of who has left, who has retired, which positions are being filled. I am very clear on the fact that the numbers (of resignations) are much higher this year. It is clearly much higher."

She said you also have to consider the teacher work force. Percentage-wise, 75 teachers retiring in a year when MCS still employed well over 500 teachers is a lot lower than 102 teachers retiring this year when the teacher work force is down to barely over 400, she said.

Kennedy said turnover is so high this year that she doesn't know how enough teachers will be hired by the start of the 2017-18 school year.

At the school board meeting, Phelps said she was "very much impressed with the pool of applicants we have. They love our area, they love the diversity we have and can't wait to get started." And they're highly qualified, she added.

Nearly 30 teachers applied for five special-education teacher openings, she said as an example. Eighteen applied for four math teaching positions. More than 30 applied for two social studies teaching slots. And 15 applied for a language-arts teaching job, Phelps said.

Twenty-four new teachers have been hired this June compared to only six new hires a year ago in June, Phelps said.

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Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.