Opinion Letter: Former Fall River teacher gives her account, states teachers are leaving district in record numbers, feel unsupported

The following is a letter that was submitted to Fall River Reporter and was not written by us.

“Dear Mayor Coogan, School Committee Members and Fall River Administration,

“My name is Meghan Jenness, and I am a former Fall River teacher. I taught in a Social Emotional and Language Based substantially separate classroom for a total of ten years prior to leaving the district last November. In the ten years I worked in Fall River I had the privilege of working with some of the best educators I have ever known in my almost twenty-year career in education. I also had the privilege of teaching students that I loved, taught and fought for every day. When I left Fall River, I cried knowing I was leaving the most amazing teachers and students in the state, which truly broke my heart. I wish the same was true for administration, the school committee and the mayor.

“On a daily basis, I felt unsupported, belittled and that my students’ needs fell on deaf ears. I was expected to plan, grade, contact parents, write IEPs, track data, analyze data and help my students grow socially, behaviorally and academically with essentially no support from administration.

“Occasionally, my administration would check in with me, but when new administration came to our school, it became more of a “caught you” than a “check in”. The staff was belittled in the hallways in front of students, in the office, over the loudspeaker and watched when they came in and left the building to ensure they were there during our contract hours. As someone that devoted myself to my school and my students in numerous ways including helping to develop our turnaround plan, being a mentor for the district, starting and running the drama club and picking up extra work to support our students, this became extremely disheartening and eventually led to why I left.

“Ten years I taught in Fall River. I want to repeat this because this feeling of being belittled went on for ten years and still I stayed. I knew I would be treated as a professional in other districts. I knew I would make more money in other districts.  I knew I would feel supported in other districts. Still, I chose to stay.

“Why, you ask?  I stayed for my students. I stayed for my fellow teachers, my colleagues, my friends who eventually became my family because we were the ones who supported each other. Not the building administration. Not the district administration. Certainly, not the School Committee.

“Seeing and hearing about contract negotiations has been a tough thing to watch and read these past few months. It’s clear the School Committee has no respect for what the teachers in Fall River do on a daily basis. It’s clear there is no support for them. It’s clear there is no belief that teachers are professionals. Most importantly it’s clear the school committee does not care about the students in Fall River. If they did, they would support their teachers by paying them an appropriate salary.

“That is the hardest thing of all of this. Good teachers. Great teachers. Phenomenal teachers are leaving the district in record numbers leaving students with no teachers, substitute teachers or uncertified teachers to “teach” them.

“Mayor Coogan, you have been in my former school, in my former classroom and personally know my former students. You know and value education, the school system and the city of Fall River. Please value your teachers the same way.”