SC has a teacher shortage. But teachers who leave can be blackballed from coming back

Some teachers who have gone through a hearing with the state board or appealed to their local school district have managed to avoid the strictest penalties. A dozen teachers in the past year who quit their jobs early were able to receive an “order of public reprimand” from the board that chided them for breaking their contract but imposed no other penalty. Others received shorter suspensions or even managed to get the date of their suspension moved back.

One former Cherokee County teacher who quit due to health concerns went through a hearing with the board and managed to get her three month suspension applied retroactively, meaning it expired 18 months before the board issued its decision.

‘They’re never coming back’

Teachers cited in the state board’s suspension orders often said they needed to move because of changes in their family’s situation, a spouse’s job change, or a sudden health emergency for themselves or a family member. One teacher quit midyear because she had to move out of state to care for her ailing mother.

Only one teacher in the state records cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which completely upended teachers’ schedules and work conditions along with the rest of the school system, as a reason for leaving their job. But 30 other teachers said health concerns were pushing them out of the job and often the profession entirely, something Kelly ascribes to the additional stresses the pandemic put on teachers’ lives.

Previously, “it was almost unheard of to leave in the middle of the school year unless there was a dire reason to do so,” Kelly said. “Now it’s pretty commonplace, and it’s got to the point where when we tell our members it might lead to their license getting suspended, they say it doesn’t matter because they’re never coming back to the profession.”

“That’s not a light or transient thing,” Kelly said. “If you have a physical or mental health need, it’s inhumane not to give them the capacity to do so without revoking their certificate.”

A variety of factors are contributing to teachers leaving the classroom more regularly, said Beth Costner, dean of the Richard W. Riley College of Education, Sport and Human Sciences at Winthrop University.

Teachers face more pressure to be the ones to respond to students’ mental health needs, which have also become a greater concern in the aftermath of the pandemic, “but when you don’t feel prepared to provide those services add to the stress level,” Costner said. That’s on top of a “political climate” that Costner says has become more hostile to how teachers conduct their classrooms.

“There are a lot of things you can and can’t say,” Costner said. “You worry about the materials that you use. Sometimes you don’t agree with the focus of the textbook you’re forced to use. ... So it’s a lot of the culture war happening on the national stage, on political campaign trails and in the classroom.”

But Costner said the current system is designed to protect school districts from losing teachers during the school year and facing the disruptions those departures would cause to students’ learning.

“If you’re teaching on Friday and decide not to come back Monday, that’s a big deal for a school district,” she said. “There are not a lot of people in line to take that teaching position. Also has to take into account the school district’s side, responsibility to students and families to provide education.”

The Education Department likewise acknowledged that “districts face a huge challenge to effectively staff classrooms,” Raven said.

East said the problems often stem from a lack of protections for teachers in the standard contract. Teachers are hired by the district, and everything from the school they teach in to the subject they teach can be changed after they’re locked into the contract.

“We had one member, a veteran teacher, who was told at Christmas one year that your assignment is changing when you come back from Christmas break,” East said. “They tell them three hours before break, and it’s a whole new prep. They had to figure out a chemistry lesson plan over Christmas break ... and it’s not like the former teacher died. Some parents just decided didn’t like the teacher, so the district moved some stuff around to make a new class, because of the parents.

“We’re trying to get some protections in our contract,” East said.