Turnover at your DC center

[Alyssa]

Aidan's been in a PT program in a DC center for 15 months. There are lots of kids like him in PT programs there, so it's more like a school. (There are only 2 FT kids in the 3 year old room.)

He had the same teachers for the first year+ in 2 different rooms (18-24 mo and 2); they moved up with them. The lead teacher moved to the Kindergarten room this fall and the asst teacher stayed with the group. They moved another long term teacher into Aidan's new 3 year old room.

That lead teacher now left. We planned to start Colin in the 18-24 mo old room in Sept, but opted not to b/c there was so much turnover at the school they couldn't get a teacher for Colin's room.

Is this a normal amount of turnover in a DC center? What are you experiences with where your kids are? Or for those who have worked at a DC center, what's it been like for you?

[Brooke]

There was alot of turnover in Rebekah's young 2's room (2-2.5 yr olds). The lead teacher was out for 3 months on a leave of absence - I think her dad was ill - and while she was gone, I think they went through 3 or 4 other teachers. The lead teacher is now back and she's still there. In the younger classes (infants to 2.5 yr olds), they go through alot of part-time teachers, too. I rarely saw the same person day to day when I picked her up.

The teachers don't move up with the kids at our DC. Rebekah moved up into a more school-like 2.5-3 yr old program in September and she got 2 new teachers and 2 PT helpers. But they have been there for a long time and it is the same 4 people every day. They say the older kids need more consistency as far as teachers are concerned.

[Karri]

Having worked in one and havnig ran one and having had my child in one, I can say that yes, there is a LOT of turnover in DC. Some centers so have more success with retaining their staff and those are the places you want to try and find (duh - obviously). In my experience, the highest turnover is found with the age group 1 - 24 months. Most likely b/c its the most difficult and most frustrating age group to care for. Even when I ran the place for a year and did things to retain my staff, those teachers were always asking to be moved to another age group or leaving for another place.

[Karri]

Ok - I have to add one more thing. And hopefully people don't take this the wrong way. There is generally less turnover in places that focus on a specialized type of education...like montessori or waldorf. Because those teachers are there b/c they have a true interest in it, whereas with regular daycare centers, it seems like its just a job for most workers (not for all, but for most its a stepping stone or a college job or whatnot). These type of people are more likely to job jump for a $1 raise. KWIM?

[Dennis]

It depends on the center as well. Our center has really low turnover (relative for the industry0 - a lot of the teachers have been there over 10 years. It's one of the things we really like about it. When Frances started in the infant room she had the same 3 primary teachers that Joe had when he was in it.

Having said that, they are currently in the process of letting quite a few teachers go because enrollment has dropped a lot :( But apparently that's a problem with most of the centers in the area.

Dennis

[Alyssa]

Thanks for the feedback. What I liked about this place at first was there was no turnover that we dealth with, then it was so suddenly a lot of it.

Karri, you comment about the "type" of place it is makes tons of sense. A teacher vested in the type of learning is a lot more likely to stay than the young girls who see this as a job and nothing more.