It’s not a retention problem. It’s a recruiting problem.

I’d like to begin with a most sincere thank you to the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and to its leadership for the words of support offered at the August 5th school board meeting for the upcoming ½ cent sales tax proposal that will be voted on this December 6.  All who spoke reaffirmed what we already know, that the future of our community, our economy and the wonderful way of life we enjoy in Terrebonne Parish is tied directly to our children and to our public education system. The chamber also affirmed the critical need to attract and retain the very best teachers we can by offering a competitive pay scale. Currently our teacher salaries rank 49th out of 69 school districts in Louisiana, placing our teacher salaries in the bottom third of all school districts.  The proposed sales tax would be wholly dedicated to improving the salaries of teachers and support staff and again, we thank the Chamber leadership for their support.

With our relative pay being where it is, it is easy to assume that Terrebonne mostly has to “make do” with whomever we can get, or that teachers are fleeing to neighboring parishes to take advantage of stronger compensation.  While some have and will leave our parish due to compensation, the vast majority of our teachers are vested in our school system and genuinely want to be here. Our teachers are excited about the new year and many were in their classrooms weeks before school started.  They didn’t show up early because they had to.  They showed up because they wanted to. This is the character of our teachers and this is the strength of our faculty that has done what it takes to push achievement scores higher each year, has inspired a record number of students to take the Advanced Placement Test to earn college credit while still in High School and have pushed our graduation rate to over 80% in – one of the strongest graduation rates in the state.

Our problem is not a retention problem, it’s a recruitment problem. Most of our employees are long-term if not career employees.  Take for example the 105 recent retirees – teachers, bus drivers, custodians and others – who spent their entire careers with Terrebonne Parish. That’s the equivalent of 2,493 years dedicated to our kids. And this is typical. Our staff teach here and work here because they want to be here. And once they are here, they want to stay here. And they do it knowing that their salaries are not as competitive as they could be and that some of their schools are not as new as they should be.  Our challenge lies in getting the next generation of teachers to come here and for those teachers, salary will be a primary consideration, as it should be for any professional career.

Our future looks bright in Terrebonne Parish Public Schools and with the support of the community, things can only get better. Once again, our thanks go out to the Chamber and more importantly, to our teachers and staff who make Terrebonne Parish Public Schools a place where professionals want to come, and to stay.

Philip Martin
Superintendent