District losing 92 educators

Lawrence teachers taking flight

More than 90 teachers and administrators are leaving their posts in the Lawrence district this year.

Since 1999, that figure has been surpassed only twice – in two recent school years when the district laid off dozens of employees.

“I believe we have a retention problem,” board member Rich Minder said. “[But] I think we’re turning the corner.”

Of the 92 teachers reported leaving as of May 25, 31 retired. Another 39 cited personal or professional reasons for departing. Fourteen said they were headed to another Kansas school outside the district. Two did not have their contracts renewed. And a few cited other reasons.

These figures, which include five administrators, will change through the course of the summer, predicted Mary Rodriguez, the district’s human resources executive director.

“We’re in a situation where there are several factors that tend to cause people to leave,” school board member Austin Turney said. “Some of our best and most popular teachers have chosen that.”

Salaries are one reason. Lawrence’s starting wage of $26,825 lags behind Blue Valley, DeSoto, Eudora, Olathe, Shawnee Mission, Liberty, Mo., and Park Hill, Mo., school districts.

Bria Klotz tutors some students in math and reading at her Lawrence home. Klotz has been a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher in Lawrence schools for the last four years. After getting laid off twice and being rehired, Klotz is leaving the teaching profession. From left are Kenzie Turner, 6, Klotz, Christa Britto, 11, and Miles Seeley-Pem, 11.

Another factor is early retirement. Teachers eligible for early retirement receive pensions, most in the $7,000 to $8,000 range, for five years. Plus, they receive health insurance for seven years. Teachers can double-dip by taking early retirement and working in another district.

The perk might push some out of teaching early. But it also is a carrot that keeps others in the system until they’re eligible for it, Rodriguez said.

Dwindling enthusiasm

Morale is another factor affecting teacher retention.

Some teachers do not feel that they have enough input into decisions about the direction of a school or the district, said Sam Rabiola, president of the Lawrence Education Assn.

Tight budget years have strained the district and teachers, including Bria Klotz, a young teacher who is leaving the education field.

“Throughout the state of Kansas, we’re not being treated asprofessionals,” said Klotz, 27, who departs after teaching for four years in Lawrence schools. “I just don’t have it in me right now.”

Klotz said she always dreamed of becoming a teacher. The daughter of a schoolteacher, she grew up playing school constantly. She would line up stuffed animals before a chalkboard in her bedroom and teach them. She would tutor friends and kids she baby-sat.

“I always knew that I was going to be a teacher,” she said.

Klotz started teaching in 2001. She was the typical first-year teacher, she said. Bubbly. Excited. Ready to do anything. She would stay late and she would do extra activities with students. She would take them on shopping trips to buy going-away gifts for other students who were leaving.

But after her first year teaching at Prairie Park School, Klotz was caught in a round of layoffs along with 64 other teachers. Some, including Klotz, were later hired back.

In her second year of teaching, Klotz was among 23 teachers statewide to win the Horizon Award, which goes to new educators who perform in an exemplary manner.

But at the end of that school year, she again was caught in a round of layoffs. That round caught 67 teachers.

“At that point, it was almost amusing,” Klotz said.

She was hired back, but her enthusiasm had been hurt by the see-sawing, uncertain employment.

Making about $27,000 annually, she found it hard to survive as a single person in Lawrence. She saw friends in other fields who could buy nice homes and cars and who had money to invest. She couldn’t do those things.

In 2004, she was a member of the Lawrence Education Assn. contract negotiations team. From that position, she said, she witnessed the “other side” and how difficult it was to get a salary increase for teachers or to get anything done.

In the schools, she said, she saw other teachers feeling defeated. There is much pressure on teachers, and the expectations sometimes feel too high, she said. She felt the joy of teaching leaching away, she said.

“In the back of my mind I was always thinking: ‘Why am I still here?'” she said. “Why am I still allowing myself to be treated this way?”

Klotz plans to move to the Burbank, Calif., area in August. She’ll pursue another career. She’s going to miss the community, the students and their families, but she’s happy with her decision.

“It’s been a weight lifted off my shoulders,” she said. “Someday I hope things get figured out. I think the school district can do better.”

Hope for the future

The district lost 87 teachers and administrators in 2003-04, according to district records. That year, the district did not renew contracts for 20 people. In 2002-03, 67 teachers were cut, and a total of 137 left their positions. These figures are up from 1999-2000 when no teachers were cut, and a total of 80 vacated their positions. All of these figures may include administrators.

When looking at the number of departing teachers, retirees should not be overlooked, Rodriguez said.

Forty percent of the district’s certified staff, including teachers, are age 50 or older, so waves of retirements should be expected in the future, she said.

“Sometimes there’s a perception that there are many people who leave the district for monetary reasons only,” Rodriguez said. “That’s not always true.”

A June 3 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court called for the Legislature to pump $143 million into schools in addition to the $142 million legislators had already approved for 2005-06. Following that decision, some say the worst times are behind the district.

“I think we’ve kind of reached the bottom, and I’m feeling optimistic that we’re going to start to move ahead,” board member Leonard Ortiz said.

After years of cost-cutting, frustrated officials are looking to the Legislature for help.

“If the Legislature would fund teachers the way they fund highways, we would have faculty who would stay in the profession,” Minder said. “We’re at the point now that there’s not some magic cut out there that we can make. It’s frustrating. We really do the best we can in terms of being good stewards of public funds.”

But there is cautious optimism.

“We have legislators in Topeka who say: We’re just going to defy the courts,'” Turney said. “If that continues, the best teachers are going to go into other professions. That will be a disaster for the state of Kansas.”