Shawn McGrew: We have to be proud of what Bright Futures has accomplished

In an interview with KZRG from earlier in the week, Joplin R-8 Board of Education candidate Shawn McGrew says we need to be focused on "maintaining our best and brightest teachers," but never acknowledges that there is a teacher turnover problem in the district.

The same approach is used with a question on the financial problems facing the district. McGrew notes that it is important to make sure the students have the technology they need and that some of the older buldings in the district be brought up to date, but never acknowledges that the district has a money problem.

On the subject of Common Core Standards, McGrew says he has some concerns about them, including data collection and making sure that all schools have the technology to deal with the online testing Common Core requires. He does not say, however, how he feels about Common Core.

McGrew does get specific about the effect of Bright Futures on the Joplin school district. McGrew, who has been deeply involved with the program, noted the difference it has made to R-8 students, and that the program has expanded to include 22 districts in six states.

"We have to be very proud of what we have accomplished."

2013 in Review: Two hundred teachers leave Joplin School District over two-year period

(From July 27, 2013)

Of the approximately 600 teachers who were in Joplin R-8 classrooms in May 2012, more than 200 will not be there when classes open August 15.

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) documents indicate at least 125 people who were listed with the school district's certificated personnel for the 2011-2012 school year, were not with the district for the 2012-2013 school year.

A few of those were in administrative positions while a few others were undoubtedly listed under different last names following marriage. That would still leave at least 100 who were no longer teaching in the Joplin School District.

The R-8 District has never said just how many teachers who were in the classrooms last year are not coming back. A district newsletter said 38 teachers retired (several of whom told me they would have loved to have remained in the classroom a few more years, but not under the current regime). Some, none of whom received quite the publicity I did, were ushered out of their classrooms, while most opted to resign to move on to other jobs in other districts.

I know of a few who left without any job lined up because of the problems they have had receiving backup on disciplinary issues and these were not rookie teachers.

In an MSSU Newsmakers interview that was posted this week, Superintendent C. J. Huff indicated that most of those leaving either resigned or their spouses landed jobs in other towns and they had to move.

Were those out-of-town employers just as active after the 2011-2012 school year or is this just something else C. J. Huff and the Joplin R-8 Administration can blame on the tornado?

2013 in Review- One hundred teachers leaving Joplin School District

(From June 26)

You didn't hear about it on the tightly scripted televised Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting Tuesday night on Jet 14, but teachers are leaving right and left from the Joplin School District.

A large number left following the 2011-2012 school year and administration blamed it on the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado.

it appears this time that the forces that have driven approximately 100 teachers out of the Joplin R-8 School District can be attributed to a man-made disaster, one of the administration's own making.

2013 in Review: A Warning to Young People; Don't Become Teachers

This post became my most popular on Huffington Post, with more than a quarter of a million Facebook likes at last count. Ironically, I submitted this to Huffington Post one day before I was removed from my classroom and escorted out of East Middle School by a police officer.

(The following is my latest Huffington Post blog.)

Nothing I have ever done has brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.

That being said, if I were 18 years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I would want to become is a classroom teacher.

Classroom teachers, especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.

The damaging effect of Joplin's high teacher turnover

I imagine there are Turner Report readers who are tired of hearing that more than 200 teachers left the Joplin R-8 School District over the past two years.

That is especially true when the situation has been explained by Superintendent C. J. Huff and others with these three scenarios:

-The teachers were suffering from the traumatic effects of the tornado

-Their spouses landed jobs in other towns.

-And the most recent one, which was posed by an anonymous commenter on this blog- The teachers left because they are afraid of technology.

Anyone who is close to the situation knows you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of teachers who left because their spouses were hired for out-of-town jobs.

I still have not heard the name of one teacher who left because of the tornado. On the contrary, I know many who resolved to stay because they wanted to help the students get through the recovery process.

As for the technology nonsense, teachers have always adapted to the technology, even when the addition of such technology and the requirements for implementing it do not make any sense.

You are always going to have some turnover in education. It is a stressful job and there are people who realize they are not equipped to handle the stress or who find that their interests lie in other directions.

With that being said, the biggest problem with high teacher turnover is the effect it has on the students.

When that many teachers are leaving, whether it be by choice or coercion, with them goes experience that cannot be replaced. There will always be teachers retiring and beginning teachers being added to schools. It is when veteran teachers who are nowhere near retirement age are leaving that you have a serious problem.

The Joplin R-8 School District has a serious problem.

The district is running through principals at an unheard-of pace and when you have lost more than 100 teachers in each of the past two years, you are talking about a crisis situation.

Where there has not been high turnover in the past few years are two areas- the top two administrators in the district, which has remained the same for six years until Angie Besendorfer's resignation takes effect next month, and the board of education.

If Ashley Micklethwaite had not taken a job out of town, we would have the same board members during that entire time. It is almost unheard of for a board of education to stay together for that long.

One way that has been accomplished is through public relations machinery that has convinced the public there are no problems in the school district. It looks as if that public relations machinery has had a breakdown. For the first time, other than two previous candidacies by David Guilford, who was close enough to the situation to know the problems that exist, there are challenges to the incumbents, including former Irving Elementary Principal Debbie Fort, Jeff Koch, and Guilford.

One major issue will be the spending spree that has put the district on the brink of financial chaos.

The biggest issue, however, is the incredible amount of turnover in the district. When McKinley Elementary has only a couple of teachers remaining from the 2012-2013 school year and the principal is rewarded with a job in upper-level administration, you have a serious problem.

When that principal is replaced, in a school that now has an entirely new faculty, including many young teachers, with a leader who not only is taking her first principal's position, but who is not qualified for that position, you have a serious problem.

When you have a board of education that has rubber-stamped the bloodbath that the Joplin R-8 School District has seen the past couple of years (always by 7-0 votes), you have a crisis.

And the ones who are paying the most for that crisis are the children.

***

WWNO, the public radio station in New Orleans, has a revealing report on the effects of high teacher turnover, which includes this passage:

The changeovers impact students and families in that there is less continuity. There's less of a chance for teachers and administrative staff to get to know students and their families well, and so families may not have someone at the school they know they can talk to if there's a problem. Instead they're dealing with new people all the time.