Equity denied for one is denied for all!!
Teacher Retention (RVA is RPS)
by Tomorrow Lofton-Pickens
Richmond City Public Schools (RPS) is not immune to the massive nationwide teacher shortage; however, RPS faces the additional challenge of an imbalance in school resource equity.
Teacher retention was frequently mentioned with very little retort at the July 18, 2022, school board meeting. RPS superintendent proposed creating a teacher retention task force committee and stated the following, “To address school climate and culture issues which we know are really instrumental to whether teachers come and go, to support from leadership to the state of facilities, as part of that rebooting our exit interview process to make sure we are getting the best possible data to understand at a building level what we can do to keep more folks engaged… Again, this is not a problem unique to RPS, but I would like us to be a leader in solving it.” This proposal was made after the school board made numerous requests, since 2021, to obtain teacher retention data from the district, including exit interview responses to track the reasons teachers resigned. At the time this article was written, the school board has not received this data. The 4th district School Board representative later presented a plan to increase teacher retention at the July 18, 2022 school board meeting. The plan is as follows: “The school board member will push to 1) prioritize teacher retention relevant to Principal and Assistant Principal evaluations replacing other metrics 2) devolve decision making including budget to schools 3) undo curriculum changes and adopt deference for teacher choice pertinent to curriculum 4) deemphasize lesson plans 5) celebrate rule breaking pertinent to teachers when in favor of remedying problems favorable to students 6) ending student access to cell phones in secondary schools 7) diminishing prioritization of incessant data collection.”
Teacher retention in RPS has its challenges for many reasons. This article will provide a multitude of reasons for the decline in teacher retention that impacts RPS. It would be hard to believe that RPS administration is unaware of the traumatic school culture and climate in RPS as a main reason. As stated by a school board member at the July 18, 2022, school board meeting, “We all know that people don’t leave jobs they leave managers.” To that point, retaliation, a hostile workplace, lack of support, middle management incompetence, the lack of equitable distribution of essential resources to schools, leaders being reactive instead of proactive, and bullying, occur without being fully investigated by district leadership, or gets swept under the proverbial rug. In response to retention, the superintendent also stated, “I want to be very clear. Money does not solve everything, and the reason people go and stay is about much more than money. That being said, it is important, it is meaningful, and it does affect people’s ability to raise a family, pay rent, pay mortgage, and so on.” This statement does not align with the institutional trauma currently occuring at RPS.
The morale for teachers who stayed with RPS is continuing to spiral downward with the superintendent’s proposal presented at the July 18, 2022, school board meeting which would reward new teachers with signing bonuses, such as a six-thousand dollar moving cost or two-thousand dollars to fill critical need positions. Teachers who decided to stay with RPS will only receive one-thousand dollars this fall. This offensive monetary bonus is but one factor that continues to lower the morale of remaining teachers.
On February 7, 2022, the Richmond Virtual Academy (RVA) began to advocate to become a Virginia Department of Education (VDOE)recognized stand-alone school. This means that RVA would be recognized the same as brick-and-mortar schools in RPS. This is the same process that the surrounding counties/districts went through to secure the necessary funding for a fully, self-sufficient virtual program. On April 11, 2022, the school board voted unanimously to make RVA a stand-alone school. Still, since that date, there have been little to no VDOE updates shared with RVA leadership from district leadership, pertinent to RVA becoming a stand-alone school. Additionally, there has been continued push back when district leadership does respond to requests asking to provide essential resources to make RVA a successful program. On May 16, 2022, the school board voted and passed the superintendent’s staffing plan proposal for the RVA despite not planning with any RVA staff, current or past, and without considering the staffing plan proposed by the RVA staff.
How does this connect to teacher retention? Using an analogy from my teaching experience, “If scholars know that you genuinely want the best for them and care, they will move mountains for you.” This same analogy can apply to teachers, support staff, the administration, and the School Board. RVA advocated and won the right to be a fully functional, stand-alone school. RVA wants all scholars to be successful and we need the administration to support us by providing the necessary and essential resources that every other RPS school has to succeed. To that point, it is late July, school starts in about 30 days for staff, critical positions for RVA have not been posted, and families have not been notified of their acceptance to RVA. In addition, no other school in RPS operates without an Assistant Principal or at least a Dean of Students. Several requests to add one or both of these positions have been denied by our district leadership. No other RPS school serves thirteen grade levels and four hundred scholars with only one administrator. This is unacceptable.
Furthermore, RVA’s exceptional education department does not have instructional aides or critical team members in place, which would be a violation when forming an Individual Education Plan (IEP) eligibility team. The expectation would be for exceptional education teachers to manage caseloads and stay in compliance without a school psychologist, speech pathologist, social worker, and other critical IEP-mandated service providers. We cannot imagine that RPS administration is unaware that not having these mandated and critical positions in place and the excessive workload placed on teachers would lead to potentially being out of compliance and further decrease teacher retention. Unfortunately, the administration refuses to make changes or provide the necessary resources for student success, nor have they proposed an opportunity to discuss a plan or options with RVA for the upcoming school year. How can we expect success if we are not given the tools and resources to be successful? While RVA waits for the needed support, our scholars will suffer from the impact of a delayed, denied, or unavailable plan of action. This is not equity. RVA presents these concerns in hopes that leadership will provide the necessary resources to ensure student achievement. Please ask the administration and the school board for equity in the distribution of essential resources. If one school in RPS fails, all of RPS fails.
