Last Friday, a Frisco ISD teacher reached out to me to express concern. She said that she received her retention bonus of approximately $1500 that day.
Although she was appreciative of the money, she said, “If they want to retain us, they need to know and see what we do, and that isn’t happening.” She then went on to say that the “retention incentive” didn’t make her feel appreciated. It was clear she felt she lacked an outlet to have her voice heard by district administration.

I asked her what mechanisms the district has to gather employee input and she said that there are occasional surveys but that she doesn’t fill them out any longer because it never seemed like anything changed. Further, she expressed concerns about confidentiality. I asked her, “Do you mean the surveys aren’t confidential?” She said, “No. The surveys are administered on a Google doc.”

I have to say I was a bit taken aback by that. I have worked in Corporate HR for over 20 years, and I have never seen an engagement feedback survey that wasn’t administered by a third party vendor to request, collect, and aggregate the data. This would increase confidentiality and thus, drive increased participation and accurate employee feedback.

I was just asked by my employer to oversee the company’s engagement survey and associated response this year. I have experience with engagement surveys, reports, and action planning in this regard spanning the majority of my 20+ year career in Corporate Human Resources.

My conversation with this teacher reminded me of another teacher with whom I spoke this past summer. She left Frisco ISD for Prosper after working more than ten years in the district. I asked her if she had an exit interview, and she said that someone from HR had reached out and she had a brief conversation. I asked if she was honest about her reasons for leaving and she said, “no” because she didn’t see the point. That was genuinely concerning to me. It is virtually impossible to address the root cause of why our teachers are leaving if we do not give them a safe forum to provide feedback and gather that feedback.

Here’s what I propose. Hire a third party vendor to administer an engagement survey AND conduct thorough exit interviews. This will enable increased and transparent feedback from our teachers and employees. Frisco ISD lost 600 teachers last year. Many of whom went to Prosper and neighboring districts. We can absolutely do better. I have created and implemented retention plans in several organizations as an HR professional, and I can offer my experience in this regard. The expense of hiring new teachers dwarfs that of retaining and continuing to develop the amazing and talented educators we already have. The district desperately needs a comprehensive plan to address teacher retention rather than simply throwing money at a problem that the administration has done little to understand.

I am firmly in support of our teachers and promise to be a voice for those who do not feel like they currently have one. Frisco ISD teachers, you are valued and appreciated. Thank you for serving our children and our community.