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At Thursday night’s school board meeting, Derek Pitts, chief human resource officer for Troup County Schools, provided the school board with a report on 2021 exit interview results from employees who left the system.

Pitts collected the data from 78 school employees leaving TCSS from April 2020 to June 2021.

The report highlighted the successes and failures perceived by employees leaving the school system.

Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed stated that they would recommend TCSS to those seeking employment. 

The largest variety in answers came in response to questions asking if employees felt they received recognition for their work or if they were provided adequate compensation.   

Fifteen responses, approximately 19% of all surveyed, strongly disagreed that they were provided adequate compensation.

Twelve people, approximately 29%, disagreed with feeling recognized for their accomplishments and extra work. 

Forty-one percent of the faculty stated retirement as their reason for leaving. This coincided with 48% of faculty members surveyed being age 50 and above.

However, Pitts did express concern over the high number of new faculty as 28% of those leaving had only one to five years of experience.

“One that does concern me a little bit is the 22 [who left early in their career]. That is one to five years. So you know that those are beginning teachers for the most part,” Pitts said when addressing the school board.   

He went on to mention several things in place to aid new teachers such as the New Teacher Academy.

“I have more meetings, and I’m meeting with brand new teachers,” He said. “These are brand new folks that are right out [in their first job], to tell them to make sure that they know that we’re here to support and help them in every way.”