Are Fresno-area schools facing a looming teacher shortage? It depends whom you ask
Teachers in Fresno and Clovis say they’re exhausted after three pandemic school years and many say they want more classroom support from and collaboration with district leadership.
Support — and what that means to teachers — is a leading factor in whether teachers stay or leave, union leaders say.
While Fresno Unified officials say they have mostly avoided the teacher shortages plaguing schools across the nation, teachers say staff morale remains low and, unless something changes soon, an exodus of teachers could be on the horizon.
“COVID has magnified the challenges that educators face to a point where a lot of teachers and those in the education system are just breaking,” Fresno teacher Manuel Bonilla said. “As more and more people leave the profession, we want to make sure we are creating an environment where teaching is an appealing job in a premier system.”
How well districts recruit new teachers and retain experienced ones lies in their willingness to solicit, listen to, respond to, and involve teachers in decision-making, union leaders say.
“They want their expertise to be valued,” Clovis Unified teacher Kristin Heimerdinger said. “When you’re the teacher who’s been trained, has years of experience, and is living that profession every day, your voice should, at least, be a part of the equation but should be the majority when decisions are being made because you’re the one who’s going to have to live with it.”
Fresno Unified doesn’t expect a teacher shortage
A recent union poll of FTA teachers reported that about a quarter of Fresno Unified teachers have considered major career changes during the current school year, including leaving the classroom altogether.
More than 68% of 1,406 teachers in a recent union poll said they considered taking a leave of absence, switching positions, or retiring early due to the challenges of the 2021/22 school year. Bonilla said the poll shows that teacher morale is lower than at the start of the school year.
The Fresno Teachers Association represents about 94% of the district’s 3,516 teachers, and it seeks educator input about the things impacting their classrooms.
Bonilla, the FTA president since July 2018, said FUSD isn’t being proactive about that data or what he described as the “coming wave of teacher shortages.”
But FUSD administrators disputed the union’s assessment of district morale and said they don’t expect to see significant staff turnover in Fresno classrooms.
“We’re not seeing what the data portrays,” FUSD Chief of Human Resources David Chavez told The Bee’s Education Lab.
Chavez said the district is prepared to fill most existing vacancies and staff shortages. He pointed to the 113 new teachers that are preparing to step into Fresno classrooms next year. Chavez said it’s the highest “teacher overage” the district has ever had.
Another roughly 100 candidates could come from Fresno Unified’s teacher residency program.
Chavez said that vacancies would be filled immediately except for the harder-to-fill positions in special education, math, and science.
Earlier this month, the district reported 73 classroom vacancies for next school year, including 22 special education vacancies in elementary and secondary grades, 39 secondary non-special education vacancies, and 12 elementary non-special education vacancies.
So far this school year, 96 Fresno Unified teachers have announced retirement. In comparison, 66 retired last school year in 2020-21; 148 in 2019-20; and 109 in 2018-19, Chavez said.
Fresno’s retention rate this year is at more than 94%, with 100 resignations.
However, Bonilla said many teachers have been talking about quitting after this year.
“This is a calling,” Bonilla said. “And a lot of people feel unsupported in their calling.”
Teachers have said this year has been the most challenging of the three school years affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, Fresno teachers said “morale is fading fast,” and they felt “uninformed, unsupported, and disconnected” from district leadership.
Bonilla said little has changed for staff morale in the last eight months, and many Fresno-area educators feel district leaders need to do more to help teachers feel more supported in the classroom.
Heimerdinger described similar challenges in Clovis schools, with many teachers feeling they should be more involved in district decisions.
Studies show that teachers are not likely to stay at a school, in a district, or within the profession if they don’t feel supported, Heimerdinger discussed.
But the CUSD Faculty Senate said morale is relatively high for more Clovis teachers, even more than two years into the challenging pandemic.
“We have a good working environment and atmosphere,” said Bill Buettner, the vice president for Clovis’ Faculty Senate, the district teacher group that supports teachers in their duties and communicates on their behalf. “We have a work environment that is supportive, especially at the school level.”
What do teachers in Fresno and Clovis want?
Many in Fresno, according to Bonilla, don’t feel that their input or expertise as teachers is valued, don’t feel that they are informed enough, and feel overwhelmed at an increasing workload under the same time constraints.
Bonilla said Fresno teachers want:
An actionable district vision “based in the reality of the classroom,” meaning a plan started and created with teachers
Consistent communication across the district’s 104 schools so there aren’t just “pockets of excellence”
Support from the district, whether that’s by Fresno Unified allowing more time for them to plan or take a mental break or by doing what it takes to make them feel valued
“It’s systemic,” he said. “We should be thriving because of support, not surviving in lack of support… when that happens, all employees are your biggest cheerleaders – your biggest marketers – in attracting others to this district to do this work.”
And the same can be said about some at Clovis Unified, the largest public school district in California that doesn’t have a teachers’ union.
The Association of Clovis Educators, the most recent effort to unionize Clovis teachers, was started so that teachers can have a “meaningful voice in the decision-making process,” said Heimerdinger, an ACE spokesperson.
There is a long history of “anti-union culture” in Clovis, she said, with many in the district incorrectly attributing the academic and athletic successes of Clovis Unified to the fact that it isn’t unionized.
“We’re having to change that culture because it’s okay to want better for students and better for ourselves,” said Heimerdinger, who has been teaching for 29 years. “Asking to improve our teaching and learning conditions doesn’t make us bad teachers and doesn’t mean we won’t be successful in our jobs.”
Fresno, Clovis schools report high staff retention rates
Heimerdinger said that support varies across the district, with some educators feeling supported but not others.
“It’s about trusting the educators who are doing the work,” she said. “Teachers are trusted to provide an education in the classroom, but sometimes not trusted to make decisions that will impact them in the classroom. Teachers just want to be heard.”
CUSD has a current staff retention rate of about 94%, according to vacancy numbers from the district.
Buettner said relatively few teachers leave Clovis Unified, and, when they do leave, typically the reasons involve family or once-in-a-lifetime job opportunities, not job dissatisfaction.
Heimerdinger also said some teachers might leave for better pay. Clovis Unified teachers are some of the lowest-paid in the area.
CUSD does exit interviews when there are resignations, which isn’t required at all school districts.
“We reflect on everything they share so we can get better,” said Barry Jager, the associate superintendent for human resources and employee relations. “That is invaluable because they have the lens that we (at the district level) don’t have.”
What are Fresno, Clovis schools doing to recruit and retain teachers?
Even as some positions are more difficult to fill, Clovis has been building its own teacher workforce, which improves teacher recruitment and retention.
Clovis Unified’s special education department has reported double-digit vacancies throughout the year for its 300-plus positions, according to Jager.
A year ago, Clovis had its first cohort of students who attended Fresno State and did their student teaching in the school system.
Once students become teachers, many stay in the district because they feel they get the support they need in the early phases of their careers, Jager said. And they’re aware of the structure and way CUSD operates, he said.
“No matter what our job, we’re all on the same team of helping students learn and pushing them to be the best they can,” Buettner said.
Buettner has stayed in his job for three decades because he gets to serve the students, which is common among his peers, many of whom attended Clovis Unified as students.
“When they get into teaching, I think they want to give back that same opportunity they received,” he said. “People want to come back, and that speaks volumes to me.”
Calling it their own teacher pipeline, Fresno Unified has also used a teacher residency program that offers a pathway for individuals with a bachelor’s degree not in education to obtain their teaching credentials while working in the district.
Fresno hired 224 of the 348 people from that program this school year, Chavez said, which has given FUSD a more diverse workforce that matches the student population, he said.
“This was a part of the strategy to make sure we weren’t looking for candidates when we got vacancies,” Chavez said.
Besides the FUSD exit interviews that help the district better understand what they can do to retain high-quality employees, the district wants to find ways to get that input before a resignation or retirement.
“We are committed as a district to doing the things we need to do in order to help employees be successful,” Chavez said. “When our employees are successful, our students are going to be successful and reach their highest potential.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
