Colquitt County School District addresses teacher burnout

Jul. 22—MOULTRIE, Ga. — Teachers across the nation have been experiencing high levels of burnout not only from their daily lives and workloads but from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Colquitt County School District recently addressed concerns about teacher burnout within the local schools following the release of a state report on the matter.

The Task Force on Teacher Burnout in Georgia was established in the winter of 2021. Teachers from across the state discussed factors contributing to teacher burnout.

There were five key themes: assessment, preserving and protecting time, pressures and unrealistic expectations, teacher voice and professional growth, and mental health and wellness.

The University of Georgia released the task force's report last month called, "Teacher Burnout in Georgia: Voices from the Classroom." The report was commissioned by the Georgia Department of Education.

"The most important thing you can provide in the classroom if you want students to be successful is an excellent teacher. That is where success happens — not through off-the-shelf programs or silver-bullet initiatives, not through high-stakes testing or rigid accountability, but through the efforts of our highly skilled and knowledgeable classroom teachers," Richard Woods, the state school superintendent, said in the report. "Unfortunately, we are at risk of losing many of these highly qualified educators if we do not take a careful look at the factors contributing to burnout in the profession."

The CCSD administration responded to the report in an interview Wednesday.

"We want to keep our employees. Every industry out there is desperately looking to hire. We've got to do everything in our power as a school district both locally, as a state and as a country to keep our good people wanting to stay in the field of education and teach because it's so important," CCSD Superintendent Ben Wiggins said.

He said the school district's turnover rate is improving.

Last year, the CCSD had more than 100 new hires at the New Teacher Orientation. That number has lowered to approximately 70 new hires at this year's orientation, according to Wiggins.

"For our district, that's a good number," he added.

CCSD Chief Communications Officer Angela Hobby said Wiggins implemented new Employee Assistance Programs last year.

"[We're] offering employee assistance programs so that our employees have access to free counseling if they need it," she said. "[We're] increasing our benefits package, so they have additional benefit opportunities to help provide for their families, health care, and wellness."

The programs also include new retirement packages that give educators an additional opportunity to invest in their futures.

"These are all things that we've been looking at because those are things that help support the educator, the custodial worker, the cafeteria worker and help them want to stay with our district," Hobby added.

The employee assistance programs offer an increased benefit package including approximately 10 free confidential counseling sessions per calendar year for the employee, their spouse and dependents through Colquitt Regional Medical Center Social Services and Psychiatry Program or Prudential Health.

She mentioned that their Totem Solutions provider offers other free services like legal advice and estate planning.

"They can have a virtual or phone call with somebody to give them a free session on making some of those life planning decisions that are sometimes really hard and difficult conversations to have that can cause [them] added stress at work," Hobby said. "We want [employees] to take advantage of them."

In the report, an elementary English/language arts teacher with 10 to 15 years of experience said, "... so many decisions are made regarding what should be happening in a classroom by people who are no longer in a classroom and have been out for a long time, or by people who have never been in a classroom."

Wiggins said this year the district included the teachers in the transition to a common reading curriculum.

"Our teachers put in a lot of time, effort and energy to make sure they vetted it to where they felt very comfortable in choosing that reading curriculum, " he said. "Teachers want a say. They want to be treated like the professionals that they are, and they know what's going on inside of the classroom. We as a district, all of our state and the country, need to understand and value that their input is critical for our success."

The report also highlighted that teachers endure unrealistic pressures and expectations. This feeling is sometimes caused by the extra time teachers spend working outside of the regular school day.

Wiggins explained, "I think the average person would probably be shocked if they knew how much time our teachers spent outside the classroom after the work-school day, calling and emailing parents and working on lesson plans.

He said many teachers are involved in sponsoring extracurricular activities that are crucial to the development of the students.

For more information on the Colquitt County School District, please visit their website https://www.colquitt.k12.ga.us/.