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During Thursday’s board meeting, the Troup County School Board got a better idea of where new teachers were coming from and saw an overview of exit interviews from employees who had just left the school system. 

According to numbers released by TCSS, of the 42 employees who participated in an exit interview, 19 were retiring and ten were relocating due to family. 

Four left due to an increased salary and four were pursuing a career outside of education. 

The other five did not specify a reason for leaving. 

With five being best and one being the lowest score, thirty-six of the 42 respondents marked a score of four or five when asked to rate a statement saying they were satisfied with their position at TCSS. Overall, of all of the statements presented, almost all of the responses were mostly positive.

The statements included asking employees if they were satisfied with their school, department or location (25 scored a “5”, 6 total scored a “1” or “2”), if they looked forward to coming to work each day (26 scored a “4” or “5”, 12 marked a “1” or 2”), if their supervisor/administrator supported them (31 marked “4” or “5”), and if they were provided with training and resources to perform their duties and responsibilities (31 marked “4” or “5”). 

Employees also highly rated the benefits package (there were no “1” or “2” scores), said the school system was safe (32 “5s”) and most thought they received adequate compensation for their job performance (37 scored this statement as a “3, 4 or 5”). 

The only statement with as many low scores as high scores was about student behavior. 

The statement said “The students in my school were well behaved.” 

Ten respondents scored the statement with a “1”, eight gave it a “2” and seven marked it as a “3.” 

Twelve of the respondents picked “4” and five scored the statement a “5.”

Most said they were willing to recommend TCSS to others seeking employment. 

Twenty-seven respondents said they would, while eight said no. 

Seven chose not to answer that question.

As far as new teachers are concerned, there was no trend where TCSS received a majority of teachers from one area. 

According to TCSS numbers, several came over from Alabama — including three from Chambers County — but no county or school system had more than three teachers transfer to TCSS.

Eleven new teachers are career, technical and agricultural education teachers, 10 are exceptional education and eight are early childhood teachers. 

Eleven are English language arts, seven are math teachers and six are science teachers. 

 The rest of the new hires are sprinkled between all other subjects, with no more than three in each subject.  

Twenty-six of the teachers, or 39 percent of new hires, are brand new with no experience. One-fifth of new teachers, or 13, have over 20 years of experience. 

All the other new hires — 27 in all — have been between 1 year and 20 years of experience.

Overall, TCSS had 66 certified new hires this year and 21 classified new hires.