Employee turnover in the Jefferson City school district has shown signs of improvement after a few tumultuous years, but it's still much higher than it was a decade ago.
A decade's worth of data provided by the school district - noting employee retirements, resignations and other reasons for turnover like terminations and transfers within the district from the 2006-07 school year through 2015-16 - offers a few takeaways:
- Under the leadership of former Superintendent Brian Mitchell, the number of resignations among district employees increased more than 315 percent over five years - from 33 employees who resigned in the 2009-10 school year to 137 in the 2014-15 school year. Mitchell retired in the 2014-15 school year. The number of resignations in the 2009-10 school year was the least the district had seen since the 2006-07 school year's count of 42.
- Under the leadership of Mitchell's successor, Superintendent Larry Linthacum, the number of resignations in the following year declined by about 19 percent in 2015-16 to 111.
- Fluctuations in the number of JCPS employees retiring from one year to the next have more or less followed statewide trends. However, while the number of people retiring each year in the same retirement system the district is a part of has generally decreased over the past five years, the Jefferson City district's has generally held steady, and it remains about 50 percent higher than it was in 2006-07.
The number of retirements in the district then was 30. Retirements peaked in 2010-11 with 55 and again in 2013-14 with 50. The district had 45 retirements in 2015-16.
In eight of the 10 years following 2006-07, the number of total resignations in the district met or exceeded the total number of retirements.
- Based on available information, in nine of 10 years, Jefferson City High School saw the most employee turnover each year among the district's buildings, with Lewis and Clark Middle School as the single outlier in the 2010-11 school year. JCHS's record isn't surprising, though, given it has the most employees out of any school building in the district.
- Likewise, while the Jefferson City Academic Center had the lowest turnover in six of 10 years, it has a staff of about a dozen people. In the other years, East, Belair, North, Callaway Hills, South, Moreau Heights and Cedar Hill elementary schools and the Southwest Early Childhood Center have stood alone or shared the status of having the lowest turnover.
- In eight of 10 years, instructional aides had the position with the most turnover. Linthacum said, as a general rule in the world of education, "there's usually more turnover (among aides) than teaching."
- At the district's central office, each of the past 10 years before 2016-17 saw an average of about one upper-level staff member resigning or retiring. This includes superintendents, assistant superintendents and directors.
This past year, the central office had five upper-level staff members who left: Director of Food Service Terri Ferguson and Director of Special Services Sheila Logan retired; Director of Staff Services Gretchen Guitard, Director of Secondary Education Tammy Ridgeway and General Counsel Penney Rector resigned.
Most of those positions have already been filled or have otherwise been subsumed into the responsibilities of new positions.
Linthacum said he is looking forward to "what they bring to the table" from the staff of the re-organized central office for the coming year. He said the district tries to hire "difference-makers."
The superintendent said the district has about 1,251 employees - including himself - and they're all important, whether they're certified as teachers or not. "All stakeholders have a role" in a child's education, he said.
Jason Hoffman, the district's chief financial and chief operating officer, explained the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education does not require the district report how many non-teaching-certified staff it employs - people in positions like secretary, custodian, instructional aide, food service worker and nurse.
Therefore, it's not immediately possible to determine rates of non-certified employee turnover during the 10 years between 2006-15; for example, what percent of employees left one school building compared to the percents at others during any given year.
In terms of efforts to attract and retain new teachers, Linthacum said the district will continue to focus on workplace climate and culture per its strategic plan. His goal is to have the district be the one where propsective teachers in Mid-Missouri want to be.
As positions open, he said, that provides opportunities to look at maintaining and improving efficiency.