Support They Value

Miriam Gettinger

We are in the human business; if we don’t have humans, we don’t have business!” This was the phrase used to headline the results of a December 2023 survey of 400 K-12 education recruiters highlighting staffing shortages for teachers and paraprofessionals across grade levels and showcasing how those shortages also lead to burnout in the staff who remain. How much more poignant is the quote in our world of Jewish education where both students and staff are to be viewed as dinei nefashot rather than exclusively through the lens of dinei mamanot.

This survey asked several questions, including: “If you left a job in K-12 education in the past year, what, if any, benefits would have convinced you to stay?” Importantly, the answer that topped all other responses was “Having a more supportive principal/manager.” This factor, more than even a retention bonus, was found to be the most likely to persuade employees to stay in their jobs. This response speaks to the importance of a positive workplace culture that comes from the top. As a retiring principal of nearly 40 years with the dubious distinction of having led both the Jewish day schools as well as the only Bais Yaakov high school in the state of Indiana, as well as extensive experience in mentoring across the day school landscape, I share some musings on this significant topic.

Save the Teachers

I am forever intrigued by the language used in advertising, reflecting the art of persuasion. One of my favorite ads quips: “They say you can’t save every child, but I think you can.” I apply that directive to staffing as well. While we cannot always accommodate every teacher’s preference for schedules and meeting times, we can elicit their preferences such that occasionally these preferences – and these teachers – are recognized through schedule rotations, multi-grade programming, or video presentations, freeing up teachers. We can also be flexible by mandating attendance at only 9 of 10 meetings. Flexibility and initiative in covering duties or classes challenges administration but reaps enormous dividends in expressing our appreciation for their invaluable dedication.

Small random acts of kindness and thoughtfulness, from personal notes to special foods, fall into the paradigm of schar batala, providing teachers with the fuel they need to stay in the profession. Occasionally helping or relieving teachers from some onerous tasks like duties, classroom decoration, etc., shows that we notice and appreciate their going the extra mile. This kind of leadership is richly supportive without expending the riches. Such practices catapult staff members towards greater, and not less, dedication and professionalism.

Time and Attention

The gift of time and undivided attention to both novice and veteran teachers cannot be underestimated. All staff need to have ‘voice and choice,’ just as students do, to thrive in their instruction. Spending time with a teacher to unpack a lesson, analyze assessment data, find source materials and resources for differentiation of instruction, flesh out details of a program, or indulge a creative whim, requires enormous patience and resolve and yet is the reason why principals are successful in developing and nurturing their staff as their greatest natural resource. Teachers are supported when leaders devote time for collaboratively problem-solving student concerns and preparing for challenging parent conversations, and, most importantly, being ‘nosay b’ol im chaveiro,’ crying and being vulnerable in discussing their personal and professional lives. Indeed, the most recent edition of ASCD’s Educational Leadership focused on The Emotionally Intelligent Leader.

Coaching and Mentoring

Every teacher is an amalgamation of strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses are glaring and insidiously annoying while the former may need to be developed and touted to be fully actualized. Principals who are cheerleaders for their staff, recognizing and nurturing their latent talents and personalities by nominating them for awards, encouraging innovation contests, empowering them to visit colleagues’ classrooms to note specific instructional traits, and inviting them to present at team or all school staffing and professional development sessions, garner significant professional capital. Investing in coaching, mentoring, and all forms of professional development, whether weekly Marshall Memo shares, book studies, online or in-person trainings or conferences (with the opportunity to subsequently share feedback with staff), invite and engage teachers in becoming masters of their own professionalism trajectories. This is crucial for limudei kodesh as well as general studies staff. Using frameworks such as SMART goal setting and reflective SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) self-evaluations maximize recruitment and retention of quality teachers.

Practice What We Preach

Principals are challenged to continuously pinpoint the Goldilocks balance between providing structured support and facilitating and embracing autonomous practice, providing oversight without micromanagement, and imposing curriculum standards while allowing opportunities for teachers to design lessons independently and creatively. We must always ask ourselves: Do we practice what we preach? Do we differentiate instructional opportunities and provide engaging conceptual and integrative learning for our staff as we ask them to do for our students? Do we utilize backwards design in our staff supervision, recognizing the interconnectedness of decisions at various levels, and navigate the challenges posed by the context-specific nature of much of professional learning? How do we align the dynamic interplay of organizational support with clarity and expectations regarding student outcomes and instructional practices? Do we provide adequate planning time for staff to complete the myriad tasks that arise at the last minute or facilitate ‘chavershaft’ dialogue such as professional banter or bouncing ideas off others? The image of a principal standing at the classroom door as a policeman looking at their watch is not the ideal of supportive leadership. Obviously it’s a challenge when teachers persistently struggle with punctuality, but perhaps this tension underscores the significance of providing a bit of breathing room in a jam-packed day of places to go and people to meet!

New Teachers

Principals must develop protocols for onboarding new teachers and refine these annually. As staffing is the bane of our professional existence (particularly in out-of-town schools), we are implored to nurture and develop new rebbeim over a period of a few years, despite the time and patience this takes, channeling their enthusiasm and innate talent into a fulfilling chinuch career and avoiding the ubiquitously revolving door. Training and coaching should extend beyond classroom management to curricular areas, including resources, core-content academic standards, and schoolwide behavioral expectations, as well as pacing, lesson flow, and unit construction through backwards design. This is imperative for novice teachers, especially limudei kodesh staff who may lack professional educational background and degrees. This can be effectively overseen through a combination of 1:1 meetings with the principal, outside professionals, and expert mentors, as well as significantly through peer support/buddies and continuous observations of master teacher classrooms both within and outside of the school.

Beyond HR

The “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” attitude undermines the respect and gravitas for the mesirus nefesh idealism of chinuch. Surely money talks and salary packages are crucial to the recruitment and retention of quality teachers; however, financial remuneration alone does not engender feelings of appreciation and gratitude nor is it the only ‘currency’ of job satisfaction. Human resource protocols, schoolwide systems, and a clear benefits package go a long way in creating a culture of professionalism and growth mindset for aspiring master teachers to hone their craft and seek opportunities to further contribute to your school. The intangibles of the pride and inspiration of contributing to a team and school or community culture and the sense of accomplishment in realizing the difference one can make are truly priceless. Professional growth culture spurs the individual commitment and dedication to forge ahead despite the many challenges and obstacles, the redoubling of efforts to advance and achieve, to contribute and create, to view the career of lihagdil Torah ulihaadeer mission through the lens of dinei nefashot and not exclusively dinei mamanot. The frustrated marketer in me yearns to loudly proclaim: “for everything else there’s Visa!” 

Support They Value Staff Testimonials

“Time for staff collaboration and professional development are game changers for me.”

“Patience with student concerns and planning for student growth trajectories.”

“Inclusion in special lunches and creative programming for Rosh Chodesh inspires me.”

“Front-loaded and interval-specific background information of Jewish holidays and prayers for non-Jewish staff is invaluable to my success in a day school environment.”

“Being seen as a genuine professional with a staff culture of respect, no matter the grade level or subject we teach.”

“The first thing that comes to mind is the principal’s support and respect for the staff’s personal schedule to fit family needs. You can retain many quality teachers because you allow everyone’s needs to be met wherever possible, making the work/life balance attainable.”

Mrs. Gettinger recently retired after 40 years as principal at Indiana’s two Jewish day schools, in South Bend and Indianapolis. She is a sought-after national speaker and chinuch mentor. Mrs. Gettinger is a senior principal consultant for CoJDS, mentoring leaders and managing school visitations, and also serves as the middle school curriculum coordinator. She can be reached at miriamgettinger9@gmail.com.

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