This feeling of frustration is one that leaders at New York’s know well. Situated between Rochester and Syracuse, this rural district of 750 students is often seen as a stepping stone by educators. Many new teachers get a few years under their belt, then take off for higher-paying suburban schools. 

Even before the pandemic hit, Clyde-Savannah experienced a districtwide employee turnover rate of 25%. This churn, particularly among teachers and support staff, disrupted the continuity and quality of students’ learning. At the elementary level alone, six to seven teachers out of 21 would leave in any given year.

Experienced educators carry institutional knowledge about curriculum implementation, assessment practices, and effective strategies for meeting student needs. When a large portion of staff leaves each year, districts must repeatedly rebuild this expertise. While new teachers often bring enthusiasm and fresh ideas, their learning curve can affect the consistency of instruction and student outcomes, at least temporarily.

As superintendent for Clyde-Savannah, I knew the district could not compete on salary. Instead, school leaders and board members focused on what we were able to control: the district culture. Could we build a better workplace, where people felt genuinely supported? Could we reduce teachers’ stress, both inside and outside the classroom? Most importantly, could we create an environment where educators were excited to come to school each day?

By reimagining its approach to recruitment, the district increased its overall employee retention rate to 98% from 2023 to 2025 and made Clyde-Savannah a top choice for prospective teachers. Finalists who were speaking with neighboring districts or had received offers told our interviewers they had withdrawn those applications in order to accept positions at Clyde-Savannah. In addition, I have seen first-year teachers choose to relocate to the Clyde-Savannah community, which is key, as early-career educators typically move only when they view a district as a place to build both a career and a lasting home.

The district’s approach to changing its culture took several forms. First, through conversations with staff and teachers, district leaders discovered that a lack of accessible and affordable child care was often the biggest deterrent to employment. Many talented educators were leaving the classroom because the high cost of child care made working full time financially impractical.

To ease the burden on working families, the district opened a for all employees in 2023. Rather than contract services to outside caregivers, Clyde-Savannah became the first school system approved by the New York Office of Family and Child Services to operate a district-run child care center. Today, 18 children between the ages of 6 weeks and 4 years attend the program each day, providing families with much-needed support while ensuring their little ones will be ready for kindergarten.

For many employees, but especially support staff and teacher’s aides earning minimum wage, the program has been life-changing. For one, being relieved of the cost of child care means she was able to purchase a car for her family. Another teacher chose Clyde-Savannah because the availability of care made it possible for him and his wife to both pursue the careers they wanted.

For Clyde-Savannah teachers and staff, the cost savings and peace of mind of knowing their children are well cared for outweigh the lure of a modest salary bump a district away.

The second initiative involved filling a longstanding gap in what had been a coffee shop desert. As a small town, Clyde lacked a spot for teachers, staff and students to grab their daily caffeine fix. So the district turned a high school classroom into a cafĂ© that rivals popular coffee chains. 

The coffee shop is staffed by trained student volunteers who earn community service hours toward graduation. In the process, these young baristas gain hands-on experience in food preparation, customer service and promotion, equipping them with marketable skills.

Students prepare drinks using standard coffee shop equipment, such as brewers, syrups and espresso-style machines. The cafe serves walk-in customers, makes deliveries to all district buildings during designated times of the day and stays open after school hours to accommodate staff, visitors, teachers and community members attending meetings or activities after 3 p.m.

Because many school bus drivers are on the road during the shop’s regular hours, the district created a drive-through option just for them. Drivers can pull up their bus outside the school doors, and students will bring out their coffee order — a small but meaningful way to include transportation staff.

When the cafĂ© first launched, the district lacked the budget for paid staff. So, I stepped in as store manager, working at 6 in the morning to help get everything prepped for the day ahead. Eventually, because of the café’s popularity, it earned enough money to pay for a full-time manager to run the shop. 

By creatively addressing a community need, Clyde-Savannah demonstrated that the district is actively listening and responding to its staff. Teachers value having a place in which to connect, collaborate and recharge. At the same time, prospective hires see this investment in staff well-being as an advantage when comparing offers from other districts. As competition intensifies for a shrinking applicant pool of qualified teachers, small districts must think creatively to set themselves apart. Higher salaries are important, but compensation does not always guarantee fulfillment. For many educators, job satisfaction comes from feeling happy, supported and genuinely appreciated — benefits that cannot be measured in dollars alone.

The first of these, modeling, is simple but surprisingly difficult to make habitual. School leaders run many meetings a week, but also have many more short, impromptu interactions with staff, and they must model the culture they want with during these brief interactions. When someone on your team comes with a question, model collaboration by first asking for their thoughts. When someone asks you to make a quick decision, respond by seeking their input on the best options. This sends the message over and over that you, as a leader, truly value the perspectives of your teaching team, which begins to build the ethos of collaboration and shared decisionmaking in your building.

After you have started reinforcing the values of this culture through modeling, you need to create structures for more formal and consistent shared decisionmaking. Start by choosing important aspects of your collective work, such as student culture, professional development or community events, and have your staff opt into and form mini-teams that align to their own interests. Once mini-teams are formed, you need a clear process for shared decisionmaking. I recommend using a simple, three-step process that can be repeated until a final decision has been made. First, several people from the mini-team create a proposal based on the group’s initial thoughts. Second, the proposal is presented to the entire group, debated and refined. Third, everyone has the opportunity to approve or disapprove of the proposal. At my school, anyone who gives a thumbs down is also volunteering to craft the next iteration of the proposal, which will then go through the same process. If your organization or team prefers majority rule when decisions are made, this process can be modified. The key is that there is a clear and accepted system for these groups to make decisions that is both efficient and aligns with your organizational and community values.

Now that you have both an ethos of shared decisionmaking and the structures to support it, you need to ensure there is time dedicated to this work. This is a two-part commitment. First, you must set aside regular time for your mini-teams to meet. There are always constraints and competing needs, and you will need to work with a variety of stakeholders, including your staff, your district or charter management organization and any unions. The second part is a philosophical one. Working collaboratively and sharing decisionmaking simply takes longer than top-down decisionmaking. You get the time back in the efficiency of executing plans or decisions that everyone involved feels fully a part of, but the first part of the process is slower and requires patience and commitment from leaders to see it through. 

The final piece of building this culture on your team is to honestly and strategically share decisionmaking authority. Leaders have many decisions to make, ranging from minute to massive. If you believe in and have built a culture of collaboration and shared decisionmaking, you are going to be sharing at least some of that responsibility and privilege. You must do this honestly and strategically. You demonstrate honesty by never pretending to share decisionmaking when you already have a definitive perspective on what that decision needs to be. You will still want to make some decisions yourself. Own that and be transparent with your staff when that is the case. The strategy part comes from carefully choosing which decisions to share and which staff members to pass them on to. For example, I would never bring a decision about choosing a vendor for enrollment software to the teaching team, but I would to the operations team. I would definitely want input from the teaching team when adopting a curriculum for reading intervention, but the staff at a single school cannot make that decision because it would be difficult for a district or charter management organization to support different curricula at different sites. You also need to be mindful of decision fatigue. Being a teacher is extraordinarily demanding. Avoid overwhelming your staff further by ensuring that the decisions you are asking your team to share responsibility for are connected to their day-to-day work.

Creating a culture of collaboration and shared decisionmaking in your school will have incredible impacts in your community. Your team will feel more invested, more respected and more joyful in their work, and that will have a significant impact on the student experience and outcomes.

Whether he’s hopping on the or filming a , Schexnaydre uses TikTok to improve school culture at Harry Hurst Middle School as students recover from pandemic learning loss.

With over 2 million views, , Schexnaydre has been able to leverage his social media presence to build trust with students.

“Whether it’s academics, test scores or mental health, your initiatives will not work unless the school culture is right,” Schexnaydre told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

Schexnaydre’s strategy has not only strengthened his connection with his students, but has also helped him retain and recruit new teachers.

With a 95% teacher retention rate, Schexnaydre’s TikTok videos have created a positive learning environment for the 107 faculty members at Harry Hurst Middle School.

However, when there are vacancies, Schexnaydre often uses his social media presence as a way to entice prospective teachers.

Schexnaydre said his TikTok often became the “conversation starter,” noting that his videos engaging with students and faculty give applicants a clear picture of the school community they’d be joining. 

“It’s been a good tool for us,” Schexnaydre said. “We’ve had really good applicants where four or five schools want them but they pick us because they saw our TikTok and how great of a school we are.”

You never know what you might see on a Friday at

Katie Martinez, a 7th grade English teacher at Harry Hurst Middle School, said teachers rarely ever leave.

“He’s definitely a fun boss and just fabulous all the way around,” Martinez told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. “He even involves the teachers in his TikToks and really brings together this school culture and community that people want to come work at.”

Martinez noted how much her students adore Schexnaydre’s TikTok videos.

“It might seem like a silly thing and it might seem like no one cares, but the buy-in from the kids is monumental and it means the world to them,” Martinez said. 

“They idolize David because he takes the time to figure out what’s important to them and it makes them more willing to do what’s important to him.”

Martinez also said Schexnaydre’s initiatives show how useful TikTok can be in schools.

“There’s definitely a way to use TikTok effectively and David has shown that it can grow a positive school culture among students and faculty,” Martinez said.

Brandy Dufrene, a 6th grade science teacher at Harry Hurst Middle School, agreed with Martinez.

“Especially in the middle school environment, students already think their teachers aren’t cool and we don’t understand them at the social-emotional level,” Dufrene told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. “So I feel like if we can relate to them and build those relationships through their interests, TikTok can be helpful.”

Jenny Bouler, the parent of a 6th grade student at Harry Hurst Middle School, supports Schexnaydre’s TikTok presence as a way to connect with students.

Bouler said Schexnaydre’s TikTok video by chasing after one he tossed in the air is one of many examples of the positive effect it can have on students.

“My initial thought was that it was brilliant and he’s a very creative principal,” Bouler told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ. “He brings topics that can be a little bit bland or dry or boring and really puts a spin on them that catches the kids attention and gets them more engaged.”

Did a technology PSA on morning announcements this week

Jane Chauvin, the parent of a 7th grade student at Harry Hurst Middle School, agreed with Bouler.

“Are there things on TikTok that are inappropriate for children? Absolutely. But our kids are smart and canny and denying access will make them want to use it more,” Chauvin told ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

Chauvin said Schexnaydre’s TikTok videos, such as his , reflects how other school administrators should approach the social media platform.

“His videos help him connect with our students in this digital world,” Chauvin said. “Our kids need to know that their teachers and administrators know what’s relevant to them.”

Students get innovative when they forget their IDs!!!

Schexnaydre believes having access to TikTok is ultimately up to students’ parents.

“I’m not trying to encourage students to make a TikTok, but a lot of them have it already,” Schexnaydre said. “So if you really want to reach people you have to go where they are, and that’s where our kids are.”

Because of the overwhelmingly positive response, Schexnaydre said he has more TikTok ideas in the works.

“Just being able to do that extra little thing has made such a big difference,” Schexnaydre said. “And if I can get the kids to be happy and excited to come to school on a Monday morning, the proof is in the pudding.”

Even before COVID, school leaders had to address the causes of burnout that have led many educators to leave the profession. While pay, workload and policies are clearly important, teachers often say a major factor in their decision to quit — or not — was the presence and effectiveness of their principal.

The stripped-down survival mode that took hold during the pandemic is not best practice, nor does it serve students. As schools reimplement pre-COVID practices, such as a return to professional development days and learning communities, strategic initiatives that were put on pause when buildings were closed, analysis of student data and so on, how can leaders recalibrate educators’ expectations and overcome resistance?

They can start by checking in with themselves, the people in their community and their priorities.

The best place to start is with self, making sure you are no longer operating from a survival state. Leaders in survival states find themselves focusing the bulk of their time on immediate or day-to-day situations, and often feel wired and tired. One strategy is to take an inventory of your calendar for the last two weeks. What have you been spending your time on? What has not been done, and why? Making intentional decisions about how time is spent moves a leader from being reactive to responsive. Try filtering requests of your time through a matrix to determine how you want to handle each item. Those that are urgent get done immediately. Items that are important but not urgent get scheduled and completed in a timely manner. Items that are not important can be delegated. The rest can be deleted. Using a filter can help prioritize not only the work, but the demands principals make on their teachers’ time. 

Next, focus on other people. Many are still healing from the impacts of the pandemic, and as a result, school cultures feel fragile. Rebuilding a healthy school begins with people and rests on a foundation of relationships, a shared vision and recognition. Little things can matter a lot. 

When you think about your school vision, does it still resonate? How are you sharing it with the community and aligning all work to the vision and values of the school? One thing school leaders can easily focus on is recognition. There is a general rule of thumb that people need to hear six pieces of positive feedback for every piece of criticism. Noticing both the big and small things teachers and staff do helps them feel appreciated and fuels a positive working environment. An easy way to do this is to have small slips of paper or sticky notes with you all the time. When you see something positive, acknowledge it — verbally, with a quick note or with a short email. 

Lastly, think about priorities. The pandemic caused one of the greatest course corrections in recent history. Has returning to school been an equally intense zag to the pandemic’s zig? Before attempting to return to “normal,” take the opportunity to re-evaluate past practices and priorities. What really matters now? Were all the practices in place before the pandemic essential? This is an opportunity to revisit and redesign how school personnel are going to spend their valuable time and resources.

Principals have an opportunity, perhaps an obligation, to recalibrate the expectations of their teachers. Too many are leaving the profession, citing high levels of stress, lack of respect and burnout. Larger systemic solutions will be required to solve many of the problems, but school leaders can buffer some of what teachers are feeling. Above all else, it’s time to prioritize people over practices and processes. It’s tempting to fall back into old patterns, but the tension in schools means it’s time to lean into something new.

As teachers nationwide face “an increasingly disrespectful and demanding school workplace culture,” and compensation concerns, the GAO charged in a report released last month failed to establish a timeline and measures to gauge progress in resolving regional teacher shortages. 

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic. 

Shortages, the agency confirmed, are most concentrated in urban and rural areas, schools predominantly serving non-white students, and key subjects like science and foreign languages.

Without clearer policy and benchmarks to address the crisis, “the effect of its efforts will be unknown and [the department] will miss an important opportunity… to help ensure that all children have access to high-quality teachers…” The GAO’s recommendations include raising public awareness about the value of teachers to combat negative perceptions of the profession; and providing information to states on how to address recruitment and retention challenges, via competitive grants and research-backed guidance on residencies, for example.

Researchers and federal policy analysts who study teacher workforces said the report confirms their understanding of vacancies and puts more pressure on the Department of Education to inform state policy.

But it will take more than just a public awareness campaign to combat negative perceptions of teaching: Addressing the systemic challenges that contribute is key, the experts said.

“School culture and support I think can tie into perceptions of teaching,” said Michael DiNapoli, deputy director of federal policy with the Learning Policy Institute, adding that “smaller class sizes, facilities that are up to date (and) supportive school leadership” will all make a difference in the lives of teachers.

Key Department programs that elevate pipelines and cut down cost barriers for those looking to lead classrooms have gone without updates for years, DiNapoli said. The , for example, which provides scholarships to teacher candidates, was last updated 15 years ago. 

“We’ve seen a whole generation of students go through K-12 with no updates,” DiNapoli said, adding, for instance, that the teacher loan forgiveness program also hasn’t been updated since 2004 amid climbing college tuition. 

The department may have limited power to change trends “overnight” given that states control their own policy, said Chad Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. But what they can do, he said, is utilize their position to guide strategy that can make the difference in addressing acute shortages. 

“They have a bully pulpit they can use and they can collect better data,” Alderman said. “If they pushed harder on the other things around licensure, compensation, things that policy actually can change, I think that is where the bully pulpit can matter from the federal lens.”

The Department will “continue to give this area priority attention,” but did not confirm it will act on the GAO’s recommendations, Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Washington said in response included in the report. A Department commission to examine how to elevate the profession is pending, proposed in their current budget now under Senate appropriations review.