The names and job titles of the 136 teachers who resigned from the Harrisburg City School District last year are all public record, but the reasons why they quit their jobs may never be known.
Data obtained through a Right to Know request shows that the rate of teacher resignations from the district has increased in the past 10 years and reached an all-time high during the 2017-18 school year. But even as the district continues to bleed staff, it has not implemented a policy for conducting exit interviews.
The district’s current practice, an “open invitation” to departing employees to complete online exit interviews, has come under fire in recent months from some school board members, who say the low return rate doesn’t generate enough data.
Board President Judd Pittman, in particular, has asked the district for years to tighten its exit interview procedure. He says that honest feedback about working conditions could help stem the flow of teachers leaving the district.
Personnel documents show that the board has been asked to approve 42 resignations since the new school year began on Aug. 1.
Each employee has a reason for leaving, Pittman said, which won’t be known to the district without an exit interview.
“We have 18 opportunities to collect data on exit interviews and learn how folks feel about their time here in Harrisburg,” Pittman said at an Oct. 15 board meeting, just after voting to approve 18 teacher resignations. “I’m hopeful that we have an opportunity to do that.”
Pittman and board director Ellis Roy raised the question again last night, when the board approved eight resignations at a special meeting.
Interim Human Resources (HR) Director Barbara Richard told the board that the district has added an in-person interview option for departing staff, which is outlined in the letter that every staff member receives after tendering a resignation. Employees are also invited, but not required, to complete the online survey.
“We can’t force them to complete the form, but we can encourage them,” Richard said. “We do try to get them to complete that and meet with us.”
However, other districts across the commonwealth have codified exit interviews in policy. At Peters Township School District in Washington County, any employee who resigns or is terminated must complete an exit interview, just as they must hand in their keys and finalize their payroll paperwork.
The exit interview consists of a two-page form, which asks the employee to list the reasons for their departure and the working conditions they think could be improved. The completed survey is added to the employee’s personnel file.
The Kutztown Area School District also requires exit interviews for departing staff, according to its employee handbook. Under its policy, any employee who tenders a resignation letter must return building keys, review payroll paperwork, and schedule an exit interview the Human Resources Department.
Harrisburg’s board has dozens of employee policies, governing everything from dress codes to the receipt of personal gifts. But none detail the procedures for an employee resigning from the district.
Stuart Knade, director of legal services at the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA), said there’s nothing stopping Harrisburg’s school board from adopting a policy requiring exit interviews.
“For most employers, exit interviews are just sound HR practice,” Knade said. “You can get some very honest feedback about the work environment and duties and job satisfaction that they might not tell you other times.”
While the district could theoretically compel an employee to complete an exit interview while they’re still on district payroll, Knade said any policy the board adopts would more likely be an accountability measure for administrators.
“If the board puts it in policy, it’s more of a directive to the HR system to make sure it happens, not necessarily a directive to employees to cooperate,” Knade said. “If you want to get honest feedback from employees, you have to incentivize it.”
According to Knade, a district could do that by making a positive job reference contingent on the completion of an exit interview. Any employee who didn’t complete one would get a neutral reference.
The district also has to make deep reassurances that there won’t be any repercussions for the information that departing employees reveal, he said.
At this point last year, 49 teachers had resigned from Harrisburg School District since Aug. 1, according to district data. The current tally of 42 resignations for the 2018-19 school year is slightly lower, but the district is still struggling to keep pace with attrition.
The district is planning a winter job fair to fill some of its vacancies, Richard said, as well as a recruiting campaign at college campuses.
A list of employee resignations since 2010, which the district provided to TheBurg under the Right to Know Law, shows that resignations increased to 137 employees last year from 102 employees during the 2016-17 school year. The district reported just 67 resignations in 2014-15.
