When you have a hiring freeze in place and just concluded yet another round of “layoffs” on top of multiple RIFs and then say you have vacancies to fill, then something seems wrong.

As reported this past Tuesday evening:

“Among the budget items discussed was news that recently cut employees could have the opportunity to return to the district due to vacancies caused by recent resignations.“

What?

…caused by recent resignations.

Why would people resign when others are losing jobs altogether?

Maybe they are educators who were told to change schools if they wanted to keep a job. All of the relationships that they had established with students and other school-site personnel were severed overnight. It’s hard to feel like you have to start over again after the start of the school year in the same school system that just caused you to make a change.

Maybe people were caught in situations where they felt they had to look for other jobs while waiting days and days to hear from the school system if they were to be RIF’ed or not.

Maybe people have lost faith in the school system as a stable employer. When an interim superintendent tells the school system that they are in danger of making good on paychecks for the next month unless there are layoffs, people more than listen. They act for the sake of their families.

Maybe it could be a combination of multiple factors.

But considering the manner in which many of our fellow educators were RIF’ed, it is not surprising that people trained to build relationships with the community would react to these impersonal, unsympathetic, and emotionally void methods of cost-cutting by resigning from this school system.

And do not think that everyone who resigned from the WSFCS these past few weeks left education. Many are just willing to drive across county lines to other school systems and work there.

And build new relationships with new communities.

And never worry about getting “Reduced In Force” again.