Alarmed at nine resignations of Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 certified — but not tenured — teachers, Board of Education member Anita Hanna wants to see policies and practices in place to keep those instructors in the fold.
Hanna said she believes the teachers’ resignations were likely tendered as an alternative to termination. She thinks better training and development by district administrators could put the employees in a better position to succeed.
“What they are doing is having them resign in lieu of termination,” Hanna said Wednesday. “This is something which has been done before, but it has become more prominent with this administration.”
Hanna made her initial plea for a plan to retain teachers during a Board of Education meeting Tuesday at the Lincoln Center administration building in Waukegan, hoping it can be a tool for dealing with a statewide teacher shortage.
“I do not like this,” she said at the meeting. “Many of the people that are being let go, the long-term people, even new people that are just getting into their careers, you’re not supposed to kick somebody out like that. You’re supposed to help them improve.”
Eduardo Cesario, the district’s deputy superintendent of academic support and programs, said after the meeting that while some people do resign ahead of a potential termination, there are other reasons that cause teachers to depart as well. It usually happens in spring.
“There are a lot of resignations this time of year,” Cesario said. “Some may have been here three or four years and chose not to renew their contract,” he added, saying some instructors take teaching jobs elsewhere for a variety of reasons.
Board of Education President Brandon Ewing said the district has an international recruiting program that brings teachers to Waukegan from abroad to help deal with the teacher shortage. There are not enough teachers in training to replace those retiring, he said.
“Some of these resignations, not all of them, are … (teachers) who are saying, ‘Hey, maybe I want to return home,’” Ewing said. “That’s a risk we have with international recruiting. We do not have enough teachers here.”
The longest-serving member of the board, Hanna is entering her seventh four-year term. She said an effort should be made to help teachers become better at their craft, especially those who need to sharpen their skills.
“We used to have here in our district a teacher academy where the teachers were being helped by professional coaches to bring them up to par, but instead it’s easier to remove people,” she said. “The sad thing to me is when they leave our district, they go to a neighboring school district and they do wonderful. But, here it’s like nobody can do their job, and that gets a little bit old.”
Though it may not be called a “teacher academy,” Amanda Patti, the district’s associate superintendent for strategy and accountability, said each school has at least one instructional coach who works to assist all teachers in the building.
“They’re an experienced teacher who helps with strategy, curriculum, lesson plans and other tools,” Patti said. “They’ll model lessons for teachers. They’ll spend as much time with an instructional coach as needed.”
More experienced teachers mentor newer ones. Cesario said principals or other administrators visit regularly to see how the lesson plan is going. They will later offer suggestions to help the teacher grow.
“These are very focused classroom visits,” Cesario said. “This is done in collaboration with the union so they know what we are doing.”
Each grade level has a team leader who is a more experienced teacher. Patti said this enhances collaboration as well as letting the instructors help each other with their lesson plans and other classroom activities.
When a new teacher enters the district, Cesario said there is an extensive orientation labeled “Great Beginnings” to help them get ready for the academic year. Before it starts, they have the opportunity to make sure all their tools, like computers and other items, are in order at a new teacher resource fair.