Students at Bayfield Middle School are going to see a lot of new faces among teaching staff on the first day of school this year.
So far in 2021, 11 of the school’s 22 teachers resigned and two teachers retired, a 59% staff departure. This does not include departures in fall 2020, district staff members said. Middle school teachers are going to be ready for the school year, but addressing the turnover is still an ongoing process, said Kevin Aten, Bayfield School District superintendent.
“In my three years here, this has been by far the most challenging season to hire teachers districtwide,” Aten said. “It’s because of COVID ... the teacher shortage, everything we’re seeing across our profession.”
Bayfield Middle School has been a concern for some years because of work culture and student achievement. But the turnover this year was higher than in the past, he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a key factor. School staff members have had to contend with added unpredictability and stress. That pushed some people to retire – and retirements are likely to continue, Aten predicted.
A few teachers said they were leaving for family reasons. Then in general, middle school is a tough time, and it takes a special person to teach at that level, he said. Those people are hard to find.
“Bayfield Middle School has been a concern for some years in our community, for climate, culture, achievement,” Aten said. “We are doing some very serious culture rebuilding and being very serious about making some changes.”
Some teachers left because of those internal changes, Aten said.
“We are looking to make this a more positive, amazing place that we feel middle school should be,” he said. “When we make those changes there are going to be some departures.”
Despite the turnover, parents do not need to be worried about issues at the start of the year, Aten said.
To gear up for the year, the middle school has hired 13 new teachers. They were already at school this week meeting each other and focusing on team-building and collaboration, said Brandon Thurston, middle school principal.
“We came out of the hiring season in a really good spot. We hired a bunch of veteran staff from all over the country,” Thurston said.
Ideally, the school would operate with 24 teachers, and positions were still posted Wednesday in an effort to attract an elective and/or core teacher, Aten said.
In the meantime, teachers are volunteering to take on extra class sections and other additional duties.
Of the 22 teachers at the school, nine are returning from the 2020-21 school year. To help new staff members, retired middle school teachers are coming back as mentors. Staff members are partnered up with other teachers to share the workload and collaborate, Thurston said.
The internal culture shift, what Aten calls the “new Bayfield Middle School,” emphasizes this teamwork and community-building.
“Turnover is always difficult,” Thurston said. “BMS is very lucky because of the folks we’re able to hire. ... It’s gone better than I expected.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
