The atmosphere in Matthew Ellis’ recent second-hour math class was similar to the normal end-of-year ambience he’s become accustomed to during his decade-plus teaching career at Lawrence High School. Students study for finals, finalize essays and gather to play games in the corner.
But there were some differences, too. The math posters that usually lined the walls were down. The ceiling tiles, signed by graduates from years past, have been taken home.
Three days later, Ellis would teach his last class at LHS.
Ellis is one of a handful of Lawrence teachers who spoke to the Times about their decision to leave the district. Some teachers plan to continue teaching in a new environment or leave the field altogether.
Overall, teachers spoke about an ever-shifting education field, traced back to changes induced by COVID-19. Students drove each teacher to keep going, but other factors — including a lack of support from the district as a whole, concerns over the future of the profession, diminishing work-life balance and more — pushed them to pursue new opportunities.
Survey results in May showed that nearly two-thirds of responding teachers were disengaged with their jobs. But staff said their colleagues, students and school communities were helping to keep them most satisfied.
In the survey, teachers highlighted frustrations with the district’s attention to mental and emotional health, professional development opportunities, salary, plan time and the leadership of the school board and administration.
“I feel like all my positive experiences this year were really from the community of families,” outgoing Woodlawn teacher Rudi Monson said. “They are so supportive of the kids and they’re so supportive of the school district, in almost like a blindly trusting way. When from within you can see that you guys should be asking more questions.”
Despite the majority of teachers feeling disengaged with their work, the number of certified staff members exiting the district has decreased, according to a recent report to the school board.
‘This was my dream job’
When Ellis describes his tenure in Lawrence, he can’t help but put it into math terminology.
“It’s like a sine wave,” Ellis said. “It’s been going up and down.”
The peaks of that wave have mostly been due to the people Ellis sees every day. His coworkers and students have made the long, and often thankless, hours worth it. He said his colleagues collaborate on everything and like to bond outside of the school, going to Royals games and eating lunch together.
“We’re like a family,” Ellis said. “You find your people and that keeps you somewhere.”
Lawrence Public Schools spokesperson Julie Boyle said people choosing to work in the district are serious about the district’s mission.
“Everything we do in our organization supports teaching and learning, improving school climate and culture and working toward educational equity and excellence,” Boyle said.
Teaching at LHS introduced Ellis to a vibrant and diverse student body. When he traveled to other schools and met with other teachers, he said, “their experiences just never seem quite as bright as mine.”
Ellis said it was important for students to have strong support for their core education, but also to have other activities that help encourage them to get to school and participate.
For years, Tiffany Bonnewell got up at the crack of dawn to lead one of those activities: Southwest Middle School’s choir. Getting to teach in Lawrence, a district known for its stellar music programs, made the early mornings more than worth it.
“This was my dream job,” she said.
But things have changed, Bonnewell said.
First, funding started to dry up. She found herself with less money to buy new music and host the annual All-City concert.
The changes and drop in support got her started looking elsewhere — something she never thought would happen.
Boyle said the district disagrees with the impression of eroding support. She said fine arts continue to be a hallmark of success in the district. She mentioned Free State High School was the inaugural winner of KSHSAA’s Performing Arts School of Excellence award and had remained a finalist each year since.
“There are numerous examples of teacher and student honors and recognition in the fine arts in our district,” Boyle said.
Bonnewell said she was still proud of the recognition and success of the music programs across the district, but said they were continually doing more with less.
This year, she split her time between two schools and said she was told at the last minute she would no longer direct Southwest’s zero-hour choir as she had for years, instead leading the choir at Billy Mills. Some choir classes were cut at both schools.
“I don’t want to be the person in charge of this when it dies,” Bonnewell said. “I want people to know how good of a thing we have, and how at risk it is.”
She’s taking a teaching job outside the district.
‘Education as a whole has struggled’
Jordan Erwin’s first year in the district was cut short by COVID-19. Now, as the Free State High School math teacher gets ready to leave, the impact of the pandemic still guides his thoughts.
He said the shutdown forced him out of his comfort zone, and probably even improved him as a teacher. But the effect on students and the education system as a whole needs continued consideration.
“I don’t think any of us fully understood what we would be walking back into once everyone was back in the building,” Erwin said.
“We tried to rev back up to normal after COVID, but we needed to slow down and evaluate what was going on to come up with a plan for how to proceed. But that is understandably hard to do as life continues on.”
Those changes Erwin and other teachers have seen since COVID-19 have reshaped the education landscape. Teachers and administrators are now wrestling with how to remediate education lost during the pandemic and utilize new technology effectively. Erwin said he was grateful for the support of fellow teachers and district administrators during the changes.
After his teaching role in USD 497, Erwin said he’s looking for a position that will allow him to “impact the educational system from a different perspective, such as administrator or educational specialist or instructional designer.”
Ellis said attacks on the teaching profession and the education system as a whole have increased. He said his next step — joining the math department at Washburn University — offers him the ability to improve his work-life balance and develop more of a life outside of the classroom.
“I think education as a whole has struggled,” Ellis said. “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s just here, but I think the diminishing of the respect of the profession of teaching, both internally and externally, I think that’s been a big challenge.”
One area that has challenged teachers, especially in the years since COVID-19, is the ever-growing presence of technology in classrooms.
When Monson, the Woodlawn teacher, came to the district this year, the first thing that jumped out to her was how technology had taken over the classroom. From iPads and laptops in classrooms to new online programs, Monson said the education field “needs to shift” to adapt to new technology such as artificial intelligence.
Erwin said the district needs to ramp up its work to teach students about how to use technology responsibly, both in their education and lives as a whole.
“This has to be a community conversation,” he said. “How we use various technologies in education and in our lives is a societal and community issue. The challenge the school district faces is really something we all face.”
Boyle said despite the district’s inability to control these external issues, they continually work to do what they can to learn and improve in the face of new obstacles.
She said the district’s administrative team was among those leading Douglas County’s COVID-19 response. The district utilized federal funds for student learning and staff retention and developed professional training programs, including technology training, for teachers.
Boyle said the district has strong relationships with staff unions and continually works to advocate for education at the state and national level. She emphasized the importance of electing representatives who support public education.
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‘We can find the answers’
On Monson’s first day at Woodlawn, she was surprised to find a check from the PTO for classroom supplies waiting for her. She said she found that support from the Woodlawn community at every turn during her one-year stay at the school.
“Woodlawn is a dream,” Monson said. “And they are literally doing the best they can within the confines of what the district is asking us to do.”
Monson came to Lawrence after spending the last 10 years working in the Chicago public school district. She said oftentimes she felt like a cog in that district, which includes more than 300,000 students.
She didn’t expect to feel that way in Lawrence, but she said she often was left feeling like she wasn’t valued by the district. She’s now leaving education altogether.
Teachers commended the district’s willingness to try new things but said it needs to keep searching for answers.
Over the past few years, the district has been transforming New York Elementary into a Montessori school and has begun to shift Liberty Memorial Central Middle School into a STEAM magnet school.
“Public schools are people-driven organizations,” Boyle said. “Keys to our success are high-quality staff, motivated and engaged students, actively involved school families, supportive business and community partners, and a resource-rich, two-university community, where education is valued.”
If Monson could give one piece of advice to the district, it would be to follow through and fully support its decisions. Ambitious decisions will only succeed if the district supports the teachers and the communities undergoing the changes, she said.
She was disappointed when she arrived in Lawrence because the town with a progressive reputation lacked as many progressive education initiatives as she expected.
“I would encourage Lawrence to get more into the conversation and stop trusting the decisions that this district is making,” Monson said. “It doesn’t feel like we’re working together. It feels like just stuff is being passed from one person’s desk to the next person’s desk.”
Ellis said he recognized the challenges and realities of tightening budgets and a lack of resources, thanks to his time on the teachers union’s negotiations committee.
But he said Lawrence needs to find a way to stand out, especially as new open enrollment laws across the state allow students to transfer to a district of their choosing.
“In the past, what’s worked for Lawrence was the extracurriculars and the experienced teachers,” Ellis said. “All these things that set Lawrence apart have eroded away to a level that we are not getting the draw anymore.”
The challenges in the district and education as a whole are daunting, he said. But he thinks that Lawrence has the power to overcome them.
He plans to stay connected with the community he loves and the district that gave him his first job.
“I know that with the teachers that we have, we can find the answers,” he said. “I think we have the potential to do great things and I hope that we can get there.”
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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