Mike Richie, District Administrator
Spirit Article - July 2022
On June 8, 2022, the Tomorrow River School District celebrated our staff recognition and years of service awards. When staff members complete 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of service with the school district, they receive recognition and a small reward as an appreciation of their dedication to the district.
I would like to congratulate six of these individuals for hitting 20 or more years of service with our District. Sherry Oleson, Elementary Principal and Sarah Scheunemann, RtI Teacher, each received their 20 years of service awards. Jenny Ludeman, High School English Teacher and Jay Kurzynski, Maintenance Supervisor, each received their 25 years of service awards. Kathy Suski, High School Spanish Teacher, received her 30 year of service award. Carol Welling, was our lone retiree this year. Carol has served as the Middle School Science Teacher for 22 years. This is a great accomplishment! Congratulations to this great group of educators/school district employees.
One of the hot topics in education today is teacher recruitment and retention, and more specifically what school districts can do to retain staff. Teacher shortages, which emerged in the United States more than a decade ago, will likely continue as more teachers leave the profession and fewer enter the teaching profession. Forty-four percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years. About half of the teacher turnover occurs in only 25% of public schools, whereas high poverty, high minority, urban and rural public schools typically experience the highest turnover rates. This will cause school districts to hire new teachers from a shrinking pool of applicants.
In a Hanover Research Report, four key strategies are identified in an attempt to increase teacher retention:
1. Support Teacher Well Being
2. Promote Teacher Engagement
3. Create a Supportive School Climate
4. Monitor Teacher Retention and Attrition
This report also concluded that establishing a positive school climate and supportive working
environment also increases teacher retention, perhaps to an even greater extent than offering financial incentives.
School districts across the U.S. will need to get creative and implement strategies that will help retain not just teachers, but all school employees. This problem will not go away over the next few years and the one way to improve our students' academic performance is to retain high quality teachers/school employees within the school district.