Nashville school employees are putting pressure on the district for better work conditions. This school year has been rife with staffing shortages that they say have exhausted those still working.
Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, which represents teachers; SEIU Local 205, which represents support staff; and United Steelworkers, which represents bus drivers, have drafted a letter urging the district to act.
“Bus drivers, paraprofessional, cafeteria workers, front desk staff, teachers, psychologists, all of those folks that I have spoken to have expressed some level of burnout,” says Sara Duran, the organizing director of MNEA. Duran adds that her office has been receiving calls nearly every week from school staff, asking how to resign or take a leave of absence.
As of last Wednesday, the district has over 360 unfilled positions. Employees say burnout stems from a host of issues that existed before the pandemic, including longstanding grievances over pay and work conditions. Those frustrations have been exacerbated by this year’s staffing shortage and the health risks associated with being inside schools.
“We’re sort of at the precipice of potentially seeing a mass exodus of people at all different positions,” Duran says.
In their petition, the groups suggest several solutions to recruit and retain workers — including increased substitute teacher pay, fair compensation for work performed outside employees’ purview, and increased wages for support staff and bus drivers.
“Many schools have staffing shortages and safety breaches. Every school is implementing new curricula and labor-intensive initiatives,” the groups say. “By making impossible demands on educators’ and support staff’s time MNPS is compromising the quality of instruction, endangering educator mental health, and risking community safety.”
They say the district should allocate some federal COVID relief dollars to fix the pay scale for support staff — or at least, use funds to compensate them for the additional work they’ve had to perform this school year.
The district’s response
Sean Braisted, a spokesperson for Metro Schools, says the district has been actively working on recruitment, and its most recent job fair saw over 100 attendees.
“Staffing shortages are impacting nearly every industry and school district in America, and our Human Resources team has been working to promote opportunities for new employment with the district,” Braisted says.
Braisted adds that the district has invested or proposed investments, such as more school nurses and permanent substitutes for schools. They’re also incorporating more planning time and professional development in this year’s calendar. School leaders plan on reviewing pay for support staff, Braisted says.
“Our leadership team has met regularly with union representatives to address their concerns, with the understanding that some challenges are systemic to public education and will not be resolved overnight but through continual improvement and investments,” Braisted says.
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