News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Executive Director of Human Resources Matt Poli, Human Resources Generalist Raelyn Wilber, and Human Resources Administrative Assistant Leslie Reynolds converse recently at the district’s Central Office.

ALPENA — A growing number of Alpena Public Schools employees have either resigned or retired over the past five years.

Nine employees retired or resigned in 2015. This year, 68 had left as of Sept. 21, according to information The News obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Three letters of resignation approved by the school board in September indicated the employee resigned because of COVID-19 or the way the pandemic had impacted his or her life, according to documents The News obtained through FOIA, but most departures are because of cyclical retirement trends, district officials say.

APS has about 500 employees.

The exits are causing staffing problems. A nationwide teacher and substitute shortage and other issues have forced the district use nontraditional means of hiring teachers, call some teachers out of retirement, and forced the district into online-only learning when too many staffers were forced to isolate because of coronavirus exposure.

Many of those resigning or retiring had been employed by APS for most of their careers, according to the district.

A small number of early exits was because of COVID-19 concerns, but employees also leave after working only a few years because they choose to leave education altogether or decide Alpena is too far away from family, said Matt Poli, the district’s executive director for human resources and labor relations.

Human Resources Administrative Assistant Leslie Reynolds said district officials this year hired several employees with ties to the community, which she said makes them more likely to stay.

But most retirements are because the district “had a huge surge of folks” between the 1980s and 90s, and now many of those employees are getting ready to retire, Poli said.

“We’ve had lots and lots of retirements over the last couple of years,” he said. “We’ll continue that process for another three or four years, at the least.”

COVID-19 OR NO?

Poli said he doesn’t think COVID-19 had a huge impact on the number of employees who chose to leave this year.

“The thing about retirement is it’s pretty rare you wake up one morning and say, ‘I’m going to retire next week,'” he said. “You really have to plan it out financially to make sure you’re in the right pathway for what’s next.”

Poli said there are still car payments and house payments when someone retires and that they still have to put food on the table.

However, there has been a marked uptick in retirements statewide this year, said Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for the Michigan Education Association, a statewide teachers union.

Boyd said MEA officials in May recorded a 20% increase in retirements over the four-year average. Retirements increased 67% in September and 71% in October.

“Clearly, we’re seeing an uptick this fall,” Boyd said. “We have to assume that COVID-19 is playing a part of it, because the uptick is dramatic.”

Mary Daoust, who was president of the APS teacher union until October, said it’s been “a rough year” for teachers. Teachers nearing retirement age have had to learn a lot more this year than they normally would have.

“There’s a lot of new things and new processes that school employees have had to learn,” she said, noting that could be why some teachers decided to resign.

However, Daoust said, most of the retirements in the district are cyclical. About 25 years ago, the district hired a number of teachers over a series of years. This year, APS hired a large number of teachers who will retire 25 to 30 years from now.

FILLING THE GAPS

Reynolds said the district is usually able to hire enough staff to fill the vacancies left by those retiring or resigning, but it gets tougher every year.

Human resources officials have had to think creatively to overcome a teacher shortage largely caused by fewer students choosing teaching as a career, Reynolds said.

She said teachers typically let HR know in March whether they will return for the next academic year, so officials begin looking for replacements in March and April.

“We hit the ground running, because, as a district, you want to snap up the best of the best that are out there, and, the earlier you do that, the better off you are,” she said. “Otherwise, as the summer progresses, people are accepting jobs with other districts, and then you have less and less to pull from.”

Reynolds said APS also recently hired three or four people through Teachers of Tomorrow, a nontraditional teacher certification program that allows people with bachelor’s degrees to obtain teacher certification.

In some situations, Reynolds said, the district has asked employees to return from retirement.

Reynolds said officials struggle more to hire hourly positions, such as instructional assistants, custodians, and secretaries. When support staff are out on leave, there’s a smaller pool of substitutes from which to pull.

Alpena High School has transitioned to remote learning twice this school year because of staffing shortages.

Superintendent David Rabbideau previously told The News that, because of a statewide substitute shortage, the district cannot make up for staff members isolating because of coronavirus exposure to adequately staff the school for in-person learning.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.

COMING MONDAY

Check out Monday’s edition of The News to find out what it’s like to teach during the pandemic.