{"id":179800,"date":"2021-11-04T14:42:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T21:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=184619"},"modified":"2021-11-04T14:42:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T21:42:19","slug":"eugene-educators-exhausted-some-want-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/04\/eugene-educators-exhausted-some-want-to-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Educators Exhausted, Some Want to Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic will hit its two-year anniversary, and according to a union report, educators at Eugene School District 4J are feeling exhausted and stressed \u2014 some are even considering leaving the profession.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eugene Education Association (EEA) President Sabrina Gordon delivered a report on the state of 4J educators at the Nov. 3 Eugene School District Board of Directors meeting. Board Member Gordon Lafer called it shocking, and interim superintendent Cydney Vandercar recommended increasing the number of no-instruction days for educators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

EEA had conducted a survey last week, Gordon of EEA said. \u201cWe did this survey to gauge educator exhaustion and stress because we\u2019ve heard cries for help daily since this year began and have had an alarming number of conversations with members who are asking how to resign, retire early or take a leave of absence,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon reported that the union heard from one educator who said she cries in her car every day after school, \u201cso that when she comes home, she can be as present as possible for her own family.\u201d She added that one special education teacher whose students want him to co-teach algebra so his students can learn it at their speed but he has too much paperwork to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey had 800 responses, Gordon said. Ninety percent of respondents said workload this year was difficult or unmanageable. More than 80 percent said workload and stress is more extreme this year than any other past year. And almost half reported that stress was so severe that it\u2019s impacting their physical and emotional health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 250 educators are considering leaving the profession,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cImagine the impact that would have. How many would it take before some schools or programs would have to shut down?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The greatest stress for the respondents was increased student needs, lack of time to plan and prepare and added work requirements, as well as one-on-one time with students and collaboration with peers. \u201cThey have less time this year, often due to sub shortages that require teachers and support staff to step in and cover during their planning time,\u201d she added. \u201cThe only way to meet the heightened needs of our teachers while also coping with a staffing shortage is to remove unnecessary tasks and give educators more time to do the most critical work.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before EEA\u2019s presentation, 4J Interim Superintendent Vandercar recommended that the board approve no-instruction days on Nov. 24, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, and Jan. 14, the Friday before the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, which was approved by the board. She added that the district will still meet instruction time requirements, except for a couple of hours for current high school seniors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that calendar changes can create difficulties for some families, so they aren\u2019t made lightly,\u201d Vandercar said. \u201cWe need to give some time to our staff members who have worked nonstop since the pandemic began, doing extra work and not getting to their everyday duties.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gordon said 4J leadership has been quick to respond to educator needs in some ways. She urged the board to keep thinking how to provide educators with adequate planning time. \u201cProviding quality education takes time,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen we don\u2019t have the capacity to provide the quality and quantity of instruction that our students deserve, which will you deserve is more important? My vote is for quality. I hope yours will be too.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Board Member Lafer later said at the meeting that the state of teachers right now is an existential crisis for the district. He said the most important thing the board can do right now is to improve areas where it doesn\u2019t have a big price tag, but there\u2019s no way to do it without insight from the educators who work with students every day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no systematic program for doing exit interviews.\u201d He said that since he came to the board in 2018, he\u2019s asked for more union-conducted surveys like the one EEA did. \u201cWe have to hold ourselves accountable to this in the same way we do for test scores and graduation rates,\u201d he added. \u201cWe need to measure the rate at which educators are leaving our schools and develop strategies to improve that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Board Member Laural O\u2019Rourke said as a parent, she finds it difficult to find the time to arrange childcare with two weeks\u2019 notice for the no-school days. \u201cWith my kid on this new day that\u2019s off, it really only works for those parents who can deal with that,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reality is that we\u2019re going to have a lot of little kids at home on their own because parents are trying to figure out what to do and they really won\u2019t be able to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke said the district should consider applying an equity lens when announcing no school day decisions. She said she would like the five or six days off so educators can have time away from instruction, but would prefer to see if they start in December to provide more of an advanced notice for working families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This discussion occurred during the section reserved for comments from the board members and only Lafer and O\u2019Rourke commented on the EEA report and no-instruction days. More discussion is likely to occur when the board votes on the no-instruction school days at the Nov. 17 meeting. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic will hit its two-year anniversary, and according to a union report, educators at Eugene School District 4J are \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}