TEACHER RECRUITMENT/RETENTION FORUM GATHERS INPUT FROM 27 FIRST-YEAR TEACHERS
An April 12 Teacher Recruitment & Retention Forum held at The Chamber focused on the critical need for teachers faced each year in the Rocky Mount area as well as across North Carolina. North Carolina institutions produce 3,000 teachers annually, while 7,000-9,000 vacant teaching positions arise each year. Twenty-seven Nash-Rocky Mount Initially Licensed Teachers (ILT's) represented their schools at the extensive data gathering session to determine strategies that can be implemented by the school system as well as the business community to alleviate this need.
North Carolina will need 70,000 to 90,000 teachers over the next ten years. The Nash-Rocky Mount community is not exempt from this critical situation and is taking action to address this issue. A task force of leaders from the education, business and industrial communities was formed last year to combine forces to develop a strategic plan to alleviate this crisis. Members from the city, banking community, health agencies and real estate developed a recruitment package to entice quality educators to our community. Nash-Rocky Mount Schools included this challenge in their long-range strategic plan and have actively engaged educators is determining what would be an attractive package to draw educators to our community, as well as retaining quality educators. The Rocky Mount Area chamber of Commerce continued their partnership in this effort by hosting a Forum for Initially Licensed Teachers (ILT) to get their feedback on what brought them to our community; do they intend to stay in teaching; and do they intend to stay in Rocky Mount.
High marks were given on the recruitment efforts by Nash-Rocky Mount staff, facilities, opportunities for professional growth, quality of mentors for ILTs, options for year-round or traditional school calendars, and support by administration. Among the drawbacks were: no signing or retention bonuses that are offered by sister counties, increasing paperwork, and shortage of computers for staff and students. When asked what Nash-Rocky Mount Schools could do to attract educators to our community, ILTs top recommendation included raising salary, benefits and bonuses to the state and national average. The business community could offer teacher discounts, donate supplies and become actively involve in schools through student mentoring and/or becoming engaged business partners for individual schools.
Most educators responded that they intend to stay in teaching and in the Nash-Rocky Mount system finding students and job fulfillment most worthwhile. Those who intend to leave expressed that low pay, lack of social life and distance from family as top reasons. When asked to design the ideal plan to retain quality educators, ILTs would boost starting pay to $35,000 to become competitive with non-teaching positions to attract the highest caliber of college graduates, and encourage national recognition of interstate teaching certificates to ease the hassle of out-of-state certified teachers beginning employment in North Carolina. They also recommended on-site day care centers for teachers, increased teacher recognition and support by the community-at-large, and help in finding employment for spouses.
The Teacher Recruitment & Retention Task Force will reconvene to analyze the data collected at the Forum in developing a long-range strategic recruitment/retention plan. Many thanks to the following businesses that contributed to 'thank you' bags given to each ILT participant: Boddie-Noell Enterprises, Coastal Plain Hospital, YMCA, Walker-Ross Printing, Nash Health Care Systems, Sprint, Abbott Laboratories and Centura Bank. Thanks also to facilitators Judy Woelke (Coastal Plain Hospital), Larry Williamson (Boddie-Noell Enterprises) and Rick Davis (Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce) for providing outstanding break-out session leadership. For additional information, contact Sandy Anglemyer (973-1205) or Beezie Arnold (985-3649).
