Charter School superintendent provides council with update on teacher retention rate
Cape Coral Charter School’s Governing Board got an explanation from Superintendent Nelson Stephenson for the system’s poor teacher retention rate that was brought to light at a recent City Council meeting.
Stephenson addressed the issue with several years of data gathered from individual schools, the system overall in addition to comparing other school districts’ rates.
Surprisingly, none of the teachers that left the charter school system and complained to City Council attended Tuesday’s Governing Board to voice their concerns.
“This was a distraction from the most positive (new semester) openings I ever experienced in my career,” said Stephenson. “We recognize it’s an area of growth, but I am confident in the staff we have in place and the principals.”
He added that he was surprised that those teachers took the matter public at a council meeting instead of to the Governing Board.
Stephenson showed that the charter schools are in line with or better than turnover at other schools in Lee County, citing one Lee school’s 66 percent turnover rate in 2015. He told the board that the system has grown at a rapid rate, falls short of other schools in teacher salary and also purged some substitute teachers who had not actually worked for the schools last year.
“Did we lose some tremendous teachers? Absolutely,” said Stephenson. “Teacher pay is a substantial barrier, but attrition is a major factor as well, even though we have given teachers small raises.
“I’m disappointed that the word termination was thrown around. In my almost 20 months on the job, I have only terminated six employees out of more than 700 (employees). That’s about one-half of 1 percent, a very low number,” he said.
Recognizing the 58 percent retention rate is troubling and needs to improve, Stephenson said he is 100 percent confident in the administration’s leadership and that the number will swing back.
“We have issues to address,” he said. “We will continue to work on it. There’s nothing being done behind the scenes. History shows that there will be turnover with a change in administration. Some people don’t like change.”
Stephenson extended an olive branch to the mayor, council members and the public to come talk to him about any concerns.
“I want to hear the bad stuff, too,” he said. “Actually, we need to know that along with the good stuff.”
Governing Board Chair Jessica Cosden said she was satisfied with the discussion.
“One year does not a trend make,” Cosden said.
“Once you delve into the data, maybe those teachers should have gone long ago,” said City Councilmember Rana Erbrick, who attended the meeting. “There was a change in administration, so maybe (Stephenson) just tightened things up. I think it was much ado about nothing.”
Board members praised Stephenson for his presentation of the data and, in fact, gave him a vote of confidence indicating the charter schools are headed in the right direction as far as they are concerned.