'Disturbingly High' Number Of Staff Fleeing Hillsborough School District

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Hillsborough continues to hemorrhage school employees, as the Board of Education works on a plan to keep them in the district.

John Oliver, a Board member and committee member to the Human Resources, described the number of resignations coming in as "fast and furious."

Oliver said the district will be sitting with some of the leaders in the school union to discuss "some action plans we can do to maybe remedy that. Should be happening in the next couple of weeks."

At the Jan. 3 meeting, Oliver said the district was working to create a new committee to work with the Hillsborough Education Association to try and gather information on resignations and retirements among school employees. Read More: Hillsborough Creates Committee To Address School Staff Issues

The committee will "work on a survey to stop the bleeding and stop losing people within the district through retirement or when moving on to better positions," said Oliver at that meeting.

However, the trend of staff leaving the district continues into May.

"We are still seeing a disturbingly high number of resignations, many are resigning to go to other districts, they are not resigning to leave education," said President of the Hillsborough Education Association Henry Goodhue.

At the last board meeting on May 23, the district saw 8 resignations and one retirement. The May 9 meeting had 11 resignations and three retirements.

Goodhue noted that 48 hours prior to the May 23 meeting he spoke with five more staff members who were looking to resign and an additional two more on May 24.

"They are not on this agenda but I fear that many if not all of them will be soon," said Goodhue at the May 23 meeting. "They are five people who are incredibly dedicated, incredibly caring, and absolutely critical to our schools and they are thinking about leaving. And the reason they are thinking about leaving is the common theme I heard from them where they said 'they are stealing something from me that I love but I just can’t anymore.' That hurts."

Auten Road Intermediate School teacher Amy Salinger concurred with Goodhue saying the added stress from the pandemic has made an impact due to the lack of support from the district.

"The support given to our members … really has an effect on how we end our day," said Salinger. "It is very, very stressful."

Former Hillsborough High School teacher Jane Staats asked the board to bring back an exit survey to help figure out why people are leaving.

"The exit survey was prompted by the alarming number of staff who are retiring and resigning," said Staats. "It was first suggested 2 years ago when the trend was beginning."

Goodhue also called for the district to bring back the survey.

"I feel like we need to take proactive steps soon," said Goodhue. "I think we should revive that survey to get actionable data. These people are hurting and they are leaving."

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