Dear ELI,

When programs hire teachers who possess higher qualifications, or when programs help current teachers increase their training or educational credentials, those teachers often leave for another position that pays more and offers better benefits. How can community-based organizations and/or small private child care centers can retain staff who earn degrees?

Yours,

Frustrated with Fair-weather Staff

Dear Frustrated,

I feel you! This cycle of supporting teachers and then losing them to higher-paying jobs is, unfortunately, a common one. To be fair to your teachers, it’s hard to resist the allure of better pay, better hours, and more responsibility and professional growth opportunities. There may be limits on your ability to tackle the first item in that laundry list, but the others are well within your grasp.

Find ways to empower your educators to share their knowledge and lead by example beyond your walls. The flexibility of working in a private child care program or community-based organization is genuinely empowering. Encourage outstanding educators to become a local trainer or coach for others in your program or at nearby programs. Make your program a home base for leadership in the field and help your staff discover how to be involved in the community, on a local NAEYC committee or board, or as a mentor for novice teachers. If leadership is what they’re after, help them lead.

If there is a formal process for helping employees gain more education, then there can also be a requirement to stay employed for a set number of years after graduation. Look into creating an educational endorsement program that mobilizes your teachers to take classes while in your employ; the return on this investment can be a commitment to remaining with your program for a certain amount of time. Key to all of these ideas is an assumption of, at the very least, competitive pay and benefits. Work with your board or a finance specialist to see if you can re-crunch your budget to offer the best possible salaries. Finally, make sure your program is somewhere people want to work—job satisfaction and a culture of appreciation cannot be underestimated as motivators to stay.

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Dear ELI,

How can directors stay connected to the classrooms when their work as a leader goes in so many other
directions?

Sincerely,

Missing the Children!

Dear Missing,

There is a great line in the old Matthew Broderick film The Freshman: “There’s a kind of freedom in being completely screwed…”

How, you may ask, does that apply to your work as a director?
Stay with me…

There are only so many hours in your day, and there will always be more work to undertake. Clear off one pile of manila folders? Another lurks just behind it. Call the plumber to fix a leaky sink? Now an R&R staffer is on her way to observe your toddler classrooms.

Lean in to the hectic-ness and recognize that, given your workload, spending a bit of time in the classroom enjoying children is not going to tip the balance between “doing enough” and “drowning in work.” (The latter is a topic for a future column…)

In short, get into the classrooms and collect your hugs, stories and finger-paint-smeared high fives. Be present with the children and teachers. You came into this field because of your dedication to children; that shouldn’t change just because your job title has.

Daily walk-throughs and check-ins can provide visibility and connections for directors with the teachers and with children. Instead of engaging with the educator(s), focus on the children—but be sure to check in with the educator to see how they are doing and if they have needs you can easily assist with. Visiting classrooms at different times of day, during regular activities, will give you a chance to see how your teachers truly make a difference for their children. Take notes as you walk through. What can you encourage? What can you recognize? Where do teachers need support? Which children could benefit from some extra attention and care?

It can be lonely at the top. Seek out directors’ networks or communities of practice. Reach out to peers in other programs and suggest a monthly lunch gathering, not for professional development, but for support and encouragement. Finding “your people” will help you chip away at those feelings of isolation, and on your way back to your desk you can pop in to the infant room and rock some babies.

Mary Muhs, Lori Harris, and Dianna Hill contributed to this column.