Warden parents concerned about teacher turnover

WARDEN — A meeting to discuss concerns of some parents in the Warden School District - and to start processes that would address the concerns - will be scheduled, probably sometime prior to the end of the 2017-18 school year. A community meeting was suggested during a meeting of the Warden School Board Thursday.

The date, time and place of the community meeting will be determined, and may be announced at the board’s May 24 meeting. Ed Backell, pastor of the Warden Community Church, tentatively offered the church as a meeting place, subject to the approval of the church board.

About 60 to 70 district patrons and teachers attended meeting to express concerns, starting with teacher turnover. Some attended to express support for fifth grade teacher Emerson Ferguson, whose contract was not renewed.

District superintendent Dave LaBounty said the decision in Ferguson’s case was a result of the state’s teacher certification process. Ferguson is a second-year teacher, and teachers must take (and pass) a series of tests to receive permanent certification. Ferguson missed one of those tests, LaBounty said.

There is an appeal process, LaBounty said, and Ferguson said he planned to file an appeal.

Teacher turnover and retention was the subject of an extensive discussion during the public comment period. Lisa Sniffen, who acted as the spokesperson, said her research indicated the district has lost more than 60 teachers since 2013, about 15 percent to retirement. She asked what the board, and district officials, planned to do about it.

Board chair Rick Martin said board members and district officials were willing to sit down and talk with parents, but wanted more information about parent concerns. Different problems will require different solutions, Martin said.

Mothers of two special needs students said they thought the turnover was hurting their children’s education. The mother of a home-schooled student agreed. She said she is sure there is no simple answer, but the school district needs to solve it. If that takes district officials, board members and district patrons working together, that’s what should happen, she said.

Sniffen said the group would come back to the May 24 meeting to find out what the board planned to do. Martin asked her and others from the group to meet with a couple of board members to come up with a list of possible questions to be addressed. Members of the group agreed.

At that point Backell suggested the community meeting, saying the concerns he’d heard seemed to be symptoms of the same underlying issues. Board member Doug Skone said the board members and district officials had hosted a similar meeting about eight years ago.