By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon Twp. — During the regular Monday night meeting, Kathie Belkowski, director of human resources for Brandon Schools, gave the board of education an update on staffing and where they compare with national averages.
A common problem, she said, was that there are less people going into teaching.
“Attracting talent is a huge dilemma for a lot of different industries, not just education, however there are some things that are unique to teaching,” said Belkowski. “A recent Forbes article said that not as many college students are going into the field of teaching, and I think we see that as we see grads coming out and what they’re getting into. We’re not alone, but 77% of companies report talent shortages, which is a 17-year high. So we’re not alone in trying to find people and trying to get them to stay.”
She said that according to the National Educators Association in 2022, 55% of educators planned to leave their position earlier than expected, either by going to a different teaching position, retiring, or by leaving the profession.
“So that’s over half,” she said. “Not just moving districts, but leaving the profession all together. That’s tough on a district when our teachers turn-over and we have different faces in front of our students, it can lead to decreased student achievement, our remaining staff become over-burdened, and it can have a negative impact on the culture”
During the 2021-2022 school year, the national turnover for teachers specifically was a little over 25%, and for 2022-2023 it was a little under 25%. In both years, Brandon’s turnover for teachers was about 5% lower than the national average.
“The national data isn’t out yet for 23-24, but, we’re a lot lower than where we have been the last couple years, which is great news,” she said. “There’s probably some trends, tides starting to turn a little bit. I think that’s pretty good news, it’s like 11%”
Despite lower teacher turn-over in the last school year, Belkowski said that almost half of the district staff has been hired within the last five years.
“Forty-six percent have been hired in the last five years,” she said. “Almost half of our staff are fairly new, so still learning a lot, still growing. Sixteen and a half percent were hired in the last 12 months.”
Belkowski said that the HR department is providing extra support where needed for new staff, and that they feel Brandon has a lot of strong points as a district for a good work culture.
“Here at Brandon, I think we have passionate leaders that lean into the culture here and the core values,” she said. “When you have a team that is really leaning into that, I think that’s what makes a culture of engagement.”