Florida teachers leaving in record numbers

From the St. Augustine Record

by Marcia Lane

Numbers are up for retirements, resignations and non-reappointments in the St. Johns County School District. Also on the rise are the number of employees entering DROP, the state's Deferred Retirement Option Program.


The bottom line, it appears that more teachers are jumping ship.

Why they are leaving is the elephant in the room.

The increases come following a turbulent year for education in Florida that included doing away with teacher tenure, offering merit pay and using the results of students' FCAT tests as a major means of measuring teachers.

We are seeing this trend across the entire state," said Dawn Chapman, the incoming president of the St. Johns Education Association.

She says teachers who can get into the DROP program are taking advantage of the opportunity. Under the DROP program, employees continue to work but stop earning credit toward their pension. They then are paid their pension, which is set aside and given to them in a lump payment when they retire.

"Teachers that are eligible for DROP or retirement want to get out before they lose the benefits that were promised to them when they became public school employees," Chapman said. "As of July 1, all teachers who are not in DROP will have their (Cost of Living Adjustment) benefits suspended for the next five years."

In St. Johns County, the number of employees signing up for DROP were up 50 percent from last year, going from 50 to 75.

Big personal decisions'

Repeatedly under the 2011 Legislative session, Debby Etheredge, outgoing president of the St. Johns Education Association, talked of how teachers felt as if they were under attack.

"When did teachers become the enemy?" she asked at one district school board workshop.

Etheredge, in a recent letter to union members, warned "Big personal decisions are coming." Those will include teachers with tenure having to decide if they want to keep their Professional Service Contracts, which will mean no pay increases, or decide to move to annual contracts, which loses them due process but has the potential of getting performance pay, wrote Etheredge.

Jim Springfield, who oversees human resources and handles negotiations for the school district, won't link the increases to new legislation.

But he said the changes will affect people including experienced teachers who want to transfer from one Florida district to another who will find they will lose their Professional Service Contracts if they switch.

"They'll have to give it up forever. That's going to hurt local people who want to transfer from, say Clay or Putnam, to St. Johns," Springfield said.

A district's newly hired teachers will automatically be on annual contracts and not be eligible for Professional Service Contracts, commonly called tenure.

Facing changes

The district has heard from out-of-state potential employees who want to know what the changes will mean. One college student wrote Superintendent Joe Joyner saying his professors were advising against coming to the state.

Because some of the Legislature's plans didn't happen, the picture isn't as black as it could have been for district employees, Springfield said. Among those failed plans was a push to do away with the state's Deferred Retirement Option Program.

However, the interest rate paid on the DROP accounts will go from 6.5 percent to 1.3 percent for those who enroll after July 1 of this year.

"Teachers are frustrated with the lack of support from our legislative leadership who continue to add additional responsibilities on teachers with unfunded mandates and then try to make up budget shortfalls on the backs of teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and other state employees," Chapman said.

As an example, she said teachers and staff at Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind are not only receiving all of the cuts but have not had a pay raise in three years.

She called Senate Bill 736, which included the majority of the changes in education funding and professional expectations, a "fatally flawed unfunded mandate that will hurt students."

Changing numbers

As the No. 1 school district in the state for two years running, St. Johns County doesn't expect to see a drop in applicants.

"We still have plenty of applicants," Springfield said. "It's not going to limit us, but it just may limit the number of experienced teachers who apply."

For every elementary school posting in St. Johns County, 1,200 applicants apply. For middle schools, 650 apply. For high school, the number is 600 applicants for every opening.

When it comes to the loss of tenure, Springfield's not certain that's the sort of issue that is top most in a new college graduate's mind.

In St. Johns County schools, the number of retirees is up 121 percent. Where 28 teachers retired in 2009-2010, 62 decided to retire in 2010-2011. While the numbers fluctuate, 62 is the highest number in the last five school years.

Also increasing is the number of non-reappointments, in most cases non-tenured teachers who principals decided not to rehire. Those numbers are up a little more than 50 percent from last year.

Cathy Geiger, director for instructional personnel, said there are three reasons for non-reappointments - non-performance, not completed certification and "this is primary this year, budgetary."

The schools don't really know what their budgets will be until the numbers of students attending are confirmed, Geiger said. Class size changes and staffing formulas are what principals must look at when deciding how many teachers to hire. No one wants to hire too many and then have to let teachers go.

The Florida Education Association and other labor organizations on Monday sued Gov. Rick Scott to overturn the new 3 percent payroll contribution plan. Previously the districts paid the retirement portion. Some legislators and Gov. Rick Scott wanted to see a 5 percent payroll contribution, but settled for 3 percent.

More than 655,000 government workers are part of the suit that claims the state is violating a contractual agreement with public employees. Another lawsuit is expected that challenges the merit pay plan.
 
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-06-25/more-teachers-seen-leaving