Northwest Wayne News

Examining specific reasons that teachers resign from the Dearborn Public Schools was discussed at the April 10 board meeting.

The discussion built on previous conversation the board had at their March meeting with Superintendent Glenn Maleyko asking members of the human resource department to provide insight.

Representatives from the department shared that they offer exit interviews for all staff that resign and try to take those responses and learn from them so that they are better able to attract and retain good personnel.

They reported that staff leave the district for a variety of reasons, such as finding a job closer to home or family, a change in career path or a promotion within the industry out of the district or a medical or personal leave of absence that becomes permanent.

Some of the district teachers shared stories of how they came to the district. Caitlin Ball shared how she came to join the district and fell in love with her family at OL Smith Middle school. At one point she left the district to take a leadership role offered to her, but returned because she missed the home she had created. When she did come back, she was able to start working on her administrative internship with her school staff to continue furthering her career while in Dearborn City Schools.

“I want to thank you for this presentation for one reason. I've been on the board since 2008 and over the years you always hear the perception of assumptions of why people leave the district,” said board member Mary Petlichkoff. “A lot of times it's an assumption that there's something wrong with the building or the district and the person left dissatisfied. And tonight, we were able to get a different perspective and a personal point of view that shows that when you have a community that has over 1,300 staff members who for a variety of reasons, are going to come and go over the years, and that it's not all necessarily a bad thing, nor is it something that that we have necessarily missed or done wrong. Sometimes it's just human nature to explore, experiment and find their path. I'm so happy to hear about the successes when we have them return. I also understand the necessity to examine those exits and understand what we may be missing and what we can improve upon.”

Since 2018, the district has had 95 teachers that have resigned from the district in the past and come back to teach again. Some of them worked as teachers at Dearborn before, while the majority worked in different positions like paraprofessionals, supervisors or other positions which they resigned from, and then came back again to a teaching position.