Trust Teachers’ Talents
The Troy School District (TSD)’s success relies greatly having excellent teachers.
- TSD has many great teachers, but economic realities imperil its ability to retain existing talent and recruit outstanding teachers in the future.
- The district no longer pays a competitive salary and has started to struggle to recruit and retain its best talent.
- The district must more effectively advocate for additional resources as well as better leverage those resources.
TSD needs board members who are able to work more effectively with the Troy Education Association (TEA) to restore TSD as the top destination for early career teachers as well as retain mid- and late-career teachers.
The Challenge:
All students deserve exceptional teachers. TSD can only recruit and retain the best available talent by dramatically increasing its average teacher salary, which means augmenting and better targeting financial resources. In addition to direct compensation, the District could help teachers fully realize their potential through strategic investments in their professional development.
Strategic Initiatives to Trust Teachers’ Talents:
- Aggressively pursue every categorical grant that is offered: Adjust policy and practice when necessary to secure funding when the state requires alignment with research-based policies and practices as TSD has not always pursued all available avenues for supplemental funding when doing so would require some adjustments to curriculum and instruction
- Invest in an established survey instrument to collect stakeholder feedback from teachers and other staff: Listen to learn and then act to address concerns proactively before unaddressed frustrations lead to an avoidable voluntary separations that disrupt student learning and weaken staff morale
- Leverage these additional revenues to increase teacher salaries and lower class sizes: Position the District to recruit and retain the best available mid- or late-career teachers
- Support all instructional staff maximize their impact through continued professional development: Empower teachers and other instructional to reach their full potential so that they can adequately support all learners to do the same
Key Results for Trusting Teachers’ Talents
- Key Result #5.1: Exceed 85% in Teacher Retention across the district in every year through 2028-29 (it was 86.9% in 2021-22 [earliest available] and 81.9% in 2023-24 [latest available])
- Key Result #5.2: Maintain an increase of 3% in Compensation Costs per Staff FTE in every year through 2028-29 (it was +4.6% in 2020-21 [earliest available] and -1.6% in 2023-24)
- Key Result #5.3: Show +20 Net Promoter score on a district-wide stakeholder survey of teachers