Higher pay helps stem Portsmouth's exodus of teachers

PORTSMOUTH

Competitive pay. Professional growth. Playing for a winning team.

It sounds like a job ad. But these are some of the reasons teachers say they work in Portsmouth.

"I'm not going to move, because my salary is pretty close to what I could get teaching somewhere else," said Jennifer Moulton, a special education teacher beginning her fifth year at Olive Branch Elementary.

In addition to pay, Moulton also praised modern teaching materials and the professional development she has received from an in-school mentor. She said she plans to teach in Portsmouth as long as she lives in the area.

"I find that the quality of my school here and my teaching experience here have been wonderful, and if it's not broken, I'm not going to try to fix it," said Moulton, a resident of Portsmouth.

She is part of a growing group of teachers choosing to stick with the school division. This year, recruiters had to fill about 110 teaching posts, said Margaret Buxton, the division's director of human resources. As of Friday afternoon, all but two were staffed, she said.

In recent years, teachers departed the division, among other reasons, because they retired, left the area, took jobs with other divisions or pursued graduate studies, Buxton said.

Superintendent David Stuckwisch recalled that when he started working in Portsmouth nearly six years ago, as many as 300 teachers, if not more, had been leaving annually. Many went to work for other school systems, he said, adding that pay largely sparked the exodus. The city's teachers were the lowest paid in South Hampton Roads.

But salaries have increased, prompting fewer teachers to leave for other divisions, Stuckwisch said.

From school year 2005-06 through 2007-08, teacher salaries rose an average of about 7 percent annually, Stuckwisch said, and this school year they are up an average of about 4 percent.

Stuckwisch said the pay has attracted stronger teachers, too, which has played a role in the majority of the city's schools earning full accreditation in recent years.

Just six years ago, only three of the city's then 23 schools were fully accredited, school leaders said. This year's preliminary results show that 18 of the division's 20 schools may earn that designation - if not all 20 of them.

The academic success has also helped the city keep and attract teachers, Stuckwisch said.

"Our school system is making great strides, and of course, it's wonderful to be a part of those successes," said Carie Hatfield, a Churchland High School teacher embarking on her 12th year teaching French for the division.

Stuckwisch said a revamped human resources department has lured experienced teachers from out of state and nearby school divisions, former Portsmouth educators who had previously left for another division, and teachers who once attended the city's schools.

LaKicia Sallee, a native of Portsmouth, taught special education classes in Norfolk and Salisbury, Md., over eight years before coming to teach at Brighton Elementary four years ago.

"I wanted to give something back to the system that educated me," said Sallee, who attended Brighton as a child.

In addition to raising teacher pay, school leaders had hoped to make further gains this year by offering a graduate school tuition reimbursement program for teachers. But they put the plan on hold when the division did not receive all the funding it sought from the city.

The lack of such a program prompted Akilah Ellison, who had taught at Woodrow Wilson High School for eight years, to leave for Virginia Beach this year. But she said she loved her students in Portsmouth, was pleased with her pay and worked with an innovative principal.

While Ellison was moving from Portsmouth to Virginia Beach, Kurt Kreassig was making his way from the Beach to Portsmouth.

Kreassig resigned from his assistant principal position at Salem High School to become the principal at Churchland Middle. He replaces Karen Giacometti, who left the city to lead a school in Prince William County, Stuckwisch said.

Kreassig wanted to advance his career.

"It's up and coming," Kreassig said of Portsmouth. "People are on board to do the right thing, and their efforts are paying off."

Cheryl Ross, (757) 446-2443, cheryl.ross@pilotonline.com