We love Manitou and, for us, Manitou’s sesquicentennial is both a celebration and a call to action. The rich 150-year history drives and inspires us to remain accountable to those that make our school district and community so exceptional — our students, families, teachers and staff.
In spring 2022, Stand Up for Manitou, a group of District 14 parents, staff and community members, started asking questions about the district’s high turnover rates, such as: “Why is this happening?” “Is exponential growth in turnover happening everywhere?”
Through many Colorado Open Records Act requests, we discovered that answer is “no.”
We met with D14 Board of Education members and shared our concerns. At that point there were no data-based answers to these questions, so we set out to find fact-based answers.
SUFM partnered with New Measures, which specializes in staff engagement surveys, to send an independent survey to D14 resigned/retired employees who left in the last two school years (which happened to be the years with the highest turnover rates).
The survey had an 87 percent response rate (the industry standard is around 30 percent). The survey was confidential — no identifying information was made available to SUFM, D14, the media or any other parties.
The findings drew clear conclusions:
- Survey respondents were asked their top three reasons for leaving, which included choices of burnout as a result of COVID-19, higher compensation, better benefits, work-life balance, principal (school leadership), etc. Overwhelmingly, the top two reasons for leaving were district leadership and district culture;
- When survey respondents were asked whether they would recommend D14 to a friend as a good place to work, only 25 percent said yes;
- When asked whether the district did the “right things” by employees, only 19 percent said yes; and
- When asked if the respondent has trusting relationship with leadership, only 15 percent said yes.
The survey findings point to some clear focus areas for the BOE. These include repairing trust with staff and district leadership, more employee involvement in decision-making, giving employees a safe place to share suggestions and feel heard without fear of negative consequences and surveying current staff through a third party.
Former staffers’ comments on the survey are extremely heartfelt. This is a small sample supplied to us through the survey organization (we were also granted permission by the respondents to use their comments anonymously):
“Fear-based leadership at the top eventually trickles down to students. What was once a creative, whole-child district is plummeting into a fear-based data machine that doesn’t fit Manitou.”
“I will desperately miss my students, my teammates, my principal and my parents. I will not miss the feeling of being someone who was easily replaceable.”
“To retain staff you need to convey to the staff that is hired that they are competent and knowledgeable in their field of expertise. That their expertise is recognized and respected with encounters with building admin. and senior admin. These interactions need to be genuine and not a facade of words without actions.”
SUFM is working hard to ensure survey respondent’s voices and feedback are heard. We are grateful to the survey respondents who trusted this process.
The questions from the survey were answered by those who taught, guided and supported our children — many of whom spent decades in our district. Their ideas, concerns, and comments need to be valued. The information gleaned from it should be used to create focused change.
We have asked the D14 Board of Education to act and to be accountable to children, families and taxpayers. Just as teachers and staff are rightly expected to teach with data-driven instruction, the families, children and taxpayers of D14 expect data-driven leadership.
And the data regarding leadership demands the board’s additional exploration.
We expect the BOE to take the necessary next steps to make this happen and to address the exponential leap in turnover. Our hope is that, collectively as a community, we can take this information and work together in collaboration with the district to solve these problems. Please join us at the Oct. 17 school board meeting to express your concerns.
Together, let’s preserve what matters. Our children are our collective future and they deserve no less than superb instruction by excellent and committed teachers that, in turn, are supported and celebrated by leadership at all levels. Let’s work to ensure that Manitou remains what it has been historically — a desirable place for teachers to love to work and students to love to learn.