Pathway took staff turnover to extremes as schools battle teacher shortage

 

Arizona continues to have a teacher shortage, and turnover is a normal part of education, but at Sequoia Pathway, it was particularly an autumn of discontent.

Since the summer break, at least 12 staff members, mostly in the secondary school, submitted their resignations from Pathway. That number includes two principals, and reasons stated for leaving the charter school have ranged from vague to angry.

“I am saddened by the state of things and while I love my students, the staff and my child – I can no longer sit quietly while good people are torn down,” Misti Oosthuizen wrote in her Oct. 22 resignation letter to Sequoia Pathway, a letter that was copied to staff and administrator emails.

Oosthuizen was lead of the Science Department at Pathway.

At least 10 staff members resigned by Winter Break out of about 70 certified positions (14%) at the charter school, mostly from the secondary school. By comparison, during the same time period (June-December), eight teachers resigned from Maricopa Unified School District out of 376 teachers (2%).

Other Pathway teachers resigned after Winter Break. Overall, the results forced parent company EdKey to rebuild its staff by mid-year.

Some resignations were directly tied to disagreements with new administration at the secondary school, which started with the June 17 resignation of Principal Diane Silvia.

Silvia mentioned no discord in her letter, saying instead she was going to spend more time with her first grandson. But by the start of the new school year, staff was beginning to quit the secondary school.

Special Education teacher Heidi Klepfer left Aug. 9. Math teacher Cindy Roadifer resigned Aug. 15. Joe Klepfler also later resigned. Among other assignments, the Klepflers had coached junior high volleyball. More than two pages long, Heidi Klepfler’s resignation letter cited the disagreements over management of the volleyball program, disengagement of administrators and “inconsistency of communication” as reasons for departing the school.

Roadifer described “being railroaded by a spineless upper administration” in her letter to EdKey Inc. She hinted students were not held accountable for their actions and said the school was now as overcrowded as other public Maricopa schools.

EdKey’s response to overcrowding was to announce plans to construct a new building. At the end of the 2018-19 school year, Sequoia Pathway’s enrollment in K-12 was 1,146, with 300 in the high school grades, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

Culinary teacher Rhonda Print resigned Sept. 11 without citing a reason, but she later told a Facebook parent group it was because of the administration.

Resignations weren’t the only problem. EdKey administration would not say how many staff members had been terminated.

But Kevin Struble’s departure drew the most publicity in October as students protested outside the school in an effort to bring him back. It was a reminder of the 2015 student protests that ultimately led EdKey to re-hire two fired administrators, one of whom was Silvia.

This time, the results were different, and Oosthuizen resigned the next day.

Teachers and families complained about a variety of issues, some even formally to the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools. After InMaricopa requested copies of those records and the charter board office had its legal counsel review the “numerous pages,” EdKey filed a complaint in court against the charter board to have the request withheld.

“Pending direction from the court, the Board is unable to release those records,” ASBCS Executive Director Ashley Berg said.

For its part, MUSD had three teachers resign during the summer break, middle school teacher Evan Drake, high school teacher Carol Mandell and Exceptional Student Services teacher Herman Edelson.

After the start of school in late July through December, resigning staff included high school teachers Yadira Fierro and Lori Bates, middle school teacher Eric Drake, elementary technology teacher Morgan Davis and kindergarten teacher Taylor Kinnard.

Of the eight who sent in letters of resignation, five reflected positive experiences, citing personal or family reasons for leaving. Mandell and Fierro expressed frustrations with re-assignments, and Mandell was also irritated with campus disruptions, including “perceived active shooter events,” and an aggravating relationship with another teacher.

“I think you and your district need to use this as a visionary letter of sorts to regroup and take teacher/peer entitlement and school threats/violence seriously,” she wrote.

MUSD tries to keep its hiring on pace with its resignations and retirements as there is monthly turnover in certified and classified employees.

According to Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, there are 2,000 unfilled teaching positions statewide.

“The truth is, there are already thousands of qualified, passionate teachers in our state who could fill these positions,” Hoffman said in her address to the Legislature. “But years of cuts to education funding have built a system where inequities thrive – be it teacher pay, student resources or community supports.”

Special Education, in particular, has a “severe shortage,” Hoffman said. Both MUSD and Pathway lost special education teachers in the human-resources process last semester.

“Contributing to the shortage is the fact that special education teachers face higher rates of burnout as they balance teaching among high caseloads, mandatory paperwork, limited resources and high turnover of support staff,” Hoffman said.

In February, 11 more certified teachers announced their resignations from MUSD effective at year’s end or sooner, including another ESS teacher.

The district issued nine letters of intent for certified teachers during a Jan. 25 job fair.

“We offered more letters of intent to teachers this year than any of the prior years. We are very early in the hiring season, but this was a great first step,” said MUSD Human Resources Director Tom Beckett, who planned to issue contracts to current employees by the end of February. “At that time, we will see staff committing to the district for the 2020-21 school year. Informally and formally we have heard of some departures, but we are optimistic our teacher retention rate will rise from last year’s 85% rate.”

Sequoia Pathway had to work even faster to fill spots at its secondary school.

At the beginning of December, English Language Arts teacher and soccer coach Juan Garavito resigned from the charter school. At the end of December, Elementary Principal Rachael Lay announced her departure. Neither cited negative experiences.

Nearly as surprising as Lay’s resignation was that of history teacher Trecia Koozer, who had been with the charter school 11 years. She announced her decision on a Facebook parent-group page Jan. 4 without rancor. Like many of those who left before her, she thanked all for great memories.

Some of the teachers, including Garavito and Koozer, have since been hired at other schools in Maricopa.

While long-term substitutes plugged the holes for the fall semester at Sequoia Pathway, most of the emptied positions had been filled with full-time teachers by the start of the new semester.

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This story appears in the March issue of InMaricopa.