Thank you to all the teachers, parents and community members who have reached out to me regarding my recent post on teacher engagement and retention. Since that post, I’ve heard from several more teachers. To these teachers, I say that I am overwhelmed by your support, willingness to share, and grateful for all you do for our children and our community.

 

Many of you affirmed the sentiments I shared in my previous post and said that you need help. When FISD loses our hard-working educators and staff to surrounding districts, the FISD staff who remains feels the tremendous weight of that loss. As your trustee, I will advocate for a proactive resolution to retaining our amazing teachers, staff, and paraprofessionals.

 

Early in my HR career, I worked for Starbucks. At that time, a major competitor was coming into my assigned market pretty aggressively. Due to its need for experienced management, this competitor focused its attention on recruiting our management employees. The tactic was to have recruiters contact current Starbucks managers and try to get them in a conversation and encourage them to interview. It worked.

Starbucks lost several managers in a short period of time. One of the district managers suggested that we send a firmly worded letter asking the competitor to stop contacting our people, and he asked me to do this on behalf of the company. Knowing that a letter wouldn’t work, I told him that it is natural for competitors to seek to recruit our best people. My comment to him, “All is fair in love and recruiting.” That’s just how the world works. It is the responsibility of the current employer to keep its employees happy and engaged so they don’t want to take the call from a recruiter or seek employment elsewhere.

 

As I’ve shared, teachers affirmed the sentiments of my recent post and said that they need help. Multiple teachers also shared with me what a nearby district is offering to Frisco ISD teachers to leave FISD and go work for them. I asked permission from one of those teachers if I could share her comments and observations publicly, and I received numerous responses from others who wished to share. Because she shared so many observations, and her observations align with suggestions for improvement from other teachers, I will address items individually in the near future as I learn and research more.

 

What’s important to remember is that FISD teachers need support and improvement of their current working conditions. If we don’t address their needs, we will continue to lose our teachers to other districts who are willing to address their needs for us.

Again, all is fair in love and recruiting. But, that doesn’t mean that Frisco ISD has to sit back and take it. We can counter it. How? I’ll tell you what I did at Starbucks.

 

I quickly pulled together the region and district leadership team and called attention to this critical issue. Then, I put together a plan. We pulled the previous engagement survey and associated action plans and asked ourselves honestly what we could actively do to address staffing concerns. Further, I personally conducted “stay interviews” with over 40 managers that, based on various reasons, we thought might be at risk for leaving. A “stay interview” is basically an active process where a current employer recruits it’s current employees to “stay.”

 

For example, one store manager told me that he had to drive 25 miles to his store every day and passed dozens of other stores on his way. He wanted to move closer to home for personal reasons, but his district manager wouldn’t approve a transfer. I helped that district manager understand that it was in the company’s best interest to grant this transfer request, or the employee was likely to leave Starbucks altogether. We transferred the valued employee, and he was thrilled. I could continue with additional stories of retention success at Starbucks, but my desire is to focus on much-needed retention in FISD.

 

While my initial post regarding retaining Frisco ISD’s most valued employees was very well-received, some people pointed out that teacher turnover is an issue beyond just Frisco ISD. I understand that. Here’s my response. Frisco ISD should be, and has the ability to be, a leader in teacher retention. FISD should constantly work to retain our teachers and fill our much-needed, and currently vacant, paraprofessional positions. Despite the 2021 retention stipend, FISD’s turnover was 13% last year. Our goal this year should be a percentage-based number less than the 13% lost last year, and we should hold our administrators responsible for obtaining a workable and realistic reduction of teacher turnover year after year. Frisco can be a leader in teacher retention. Frisco can do better.

Has FISD even set a turnover goal that is lower than the previous year? If not, we should. Most organizations set turnover rate goals and hold their leaders accountable to them. Is FISD gathering the necessary data from our current and departed teachers to know where to begin an action plan? If we are, I’d love to learn more and offer my expertise in this regard.

 

The plan I implemented at Starbucks worked, by the way. The number of manager resignations was significantly reduced. Subsequently, store manager engagement went up on the next survey. Most importantly, our leaders realized how important it is to keep current, experienced talent happy and engaged at work.

As teachers continue to reach out to share their concerns, I will continue to listen openly. I will listen to learn and understand more about the current climate in FISD schools.

 

Here is my message to teachers, paraprofessionals, and all staff- I hear you and want to help.

 

Feel free to email me at info@stephanie4fisd.com with your ideas and concerns. Let’s make Frisco ISD the best place to work, and let’s do this together.