St. Charles teachers tell School Board members they are ‘burnt out’

St. Charles School District teacher Stephanie Tyson summed up the feelings of many of her colleagues when she told St. Charles School Board members on Monday they are “burnt out.”

“As early childhood educators, we wear multiple hats, teaching general education students, special education students and English language learners,” Tyson, an early childhood classroom teacher at Fox Ridge School, told board members. “This leads to a wide variety of necessary interventions within any single classroom. And to ensure our educators are able to do their work, we need support. We have many similar needs to our elementary colleagues, but are not given the same resources. We do not have a English language learner liaison, so teachers are required to conduct their own screenings, which takes us out of the classroom at the beginning of the year.”

In addition, she said they do not have a learning resource center director or assistant.

“This puts the burden of circulation on teachers rather than allowing us to support students in book choice and engagement,” Tyson said. “This also limits tech and media support. Members of our diagnostic team, which includes an occupational and physical therapist, social worker, school psychologist and school nurse, all serve dual roles. This has led to a significant increase in our workload, as they are also responsible for providing services to students and supporting the building needs.”

Tyson was one of several teachers who spoke at the meeting. As teachers addressed School Board members, hundreds of their fellow teachers listened to them via loudspeakers set up in a grassy area outside Haines Center and cheered them on.

“We realize that there are a plethora of pieces that are beyond any of our control, from the labor shortage to state mandates to the pressures we feel throughout social media,” St. Charles Education Association President Joe Blomquist said in addressing School Board members. “But today, we are here to talk about what we as a district can control. Many of these concerns existed long before the pandemic and several have only been exacerbated by the events of the last 20 months.”

At the same time, he said the district’s administration has been working very hard over the past several weeks to identify “actionable steps that the district can take to alleviate these compounded concerns.”

“We are here because we want to not simply lay our complaints at your feet and expect you to fix them,” Blomquist said. “We are here because we are pleading to have a two-way dialogue around these obstacles to student learning.”

St. Charles North High School English teacher Alice Froemling told School Board members that “we want to be partners with you.”

“But that becomes more and more difficult when decisions are pushed down on us, when plates are constantly thrown at us to spin in the air, often without a clear why and with no regard for how to meet these demands while still effectively teaching our kids,” she said. “One of the most precious plates we spin is the attention we keep on our students’ mental health. Already this year, I’ve had an alarming number of conversations with students who are stressed, exhausted and in tears from the demands put on them in an eagerness to get back to normal.”

That includes the students being required to take final exams this year.

“To them, the addition of final exams is already increasing their stress levels and I’m extremely worried about the pressures they’ll feel come December,” Froemling said.

She implored the board members to “trust your teachers.”

After the meeting, Board President Jillian Barker said the School Board supports Superintendent Jason Pearson and his administrative team as they engage in “meaningful collaborative conversations with the teachers and develop a plan for the next steps.”

“The board intends to be a part of these conversations,” she said. “Ultimately, we know that meeting the needs of our teachers and continuing to provide them with the tools they need to effectively teach increases positive outcomes for all students.”