Who takes care of teachers? CMS educators find ways to cope with stress, burnout
Justin Ashley is a regular at 9Round Fitness in Ballantyne. He goes for several three-minute rounds at least six days a week, and his opponents are anxiety, depression and teacher burnout.
“Boxing is rehab,” said the 37-year-old Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools educator. “I’m still fighting my way back to health. Literally.”
Ashley teaches at Community House Middle School in southern Mecklenburg County and has always been open about dealing with depression and anxiety. Those along with a dependence on prescription drugs nearly drove him out of the profession. He’s written a book and is a work-life balance coach.
He wants his story to continue to resonate, especially when teachers are leaving the field because of stress and the emotional toll COVID-19 left the last three school years. A State of the Teaching Profession report presented to the State Board of Education in March showed 8.20% of teachers left the profession in 2020-21 compared to 7.53% in 2019-20.
Since teachers returned for the 2021-22 school year on Aug. 16, 875 teachers have left CMS, said Cassie Fambro, a media relations specialist for the district. From Aug. 2020 to Aug. 2021, there were 1,625 teacher separations in CMS.
“I’ve seen it firsthand,” Ashley told The Charlotte Observer.
He told a story about a teacher friend who walked away from her job after overhearing her daughter say: “I have a mom sometimes, but not all the time anymore.”
“Every teacher at the beginning of the pandemic had to reset, restart, relearn,” Ashley said. “Now, there are still the challenges of managing the workload, but now it’s really hard. There’s the academic loss. Students are coming back into schools with mental health issues. That’s the reality. It’s not what it was before the pandemic.”
Ashley was the keynote speaker at the Presby Psych Embrace Our Teachers breakfast Thursday morning. The Charlotte-based, nonprofit Presby Psych will offer free and financially assisted therapy to CMS teachers and staff beginning June 1. Presby Psych will provide the first five therapy sessions free, then pay half of the insurance copay, up to $30, for each remaining session. There is no additional cost to the district.
“We all need to recognize and validate how much stress teachers are under,” said Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea, the executive director of Presby Psych. “It goes a long way to say, ‘You know, I get it.’ We appreciate what you’re doing. Districts need to try and build in more breaks for teachers during the day. Just having teachers put their feet up for five minutes. Giving them literature, teaching them breathing techniques — there are things we can give them during the day that helps them rejuvenate.”
She said less-than-deserved pay, political controversies such as face masks inside school buildings and dealing with stressed-out parents and students mean teachers are struggling more than usual.
‘Happy teachers make happy students’
Nearly one in four teachers said they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year, compared with one in six teachers who were likely to leave on average prior to the pandemic, according to a RAND Corporation survey. RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges, it says on its website.
The survey found a “much-higher proportion of teachers” reported frequent job-related stress and symptoms of depression than the general adult population. Instruction and health were the highest-ranked stressors for teachers.
“There are days that are still very much a struggle for me,” Ashley said. “I have upped my counseling. I have made some shifts. I don’t bring work home on the weekends. I do my best to have boundaries. I play basketball with some teacher friends. I see how teachers can suffer from burnout.”
Ashley, who is a former North Carolina History Teacher of the Year and author of “The Balanced Teacher Path,” is in his 15th year teaching in CMS. The husband and father of two children, 6 and 11, said teachers have a difficult time asking for help.
“Our students, the parents … they see us as superheroes,” he said. “Teachers are expected to be the experts. Teachers need to become students of our emotions, study our emotions, help ourselves figure out how to work with these emotions in a healthy way and not lose our heart for being a teacher. Happy teachers make happy students. Teachers are going to give their best effort when everything in their life is in sync. We’ve got to get back to that.”
In 2013, Ashley won two state titles — the NC History Teacher of the Year and NC Social Studies Teacher of the Year. His classes take on history-inspired projects such as revolutionary water balloon battles, a reference to the country’s fight for independence.
Additional services available to educators
Frawley-O’Dea said Presby Psych’s services beginning in June aren’t just for teachers. Anyone can take advantage — cafeteria workers, bus drivers and administrators included.
“We’ve been reading about the intense stress happening in school districts,” she said. “We want to help.”
In addition to Presby Psych’s services, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with the North Carolina Psychological Foundation expanded the Hope4Healers helpline in August 2020 to serve the state’s teachers, school personnel and their families. It’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people to reach out for support from a licensed mental health professional.
The helpline also provides mental health and resilience support for health care professionals, emergency medical specialists, child care professionals, disaster and first responders and other staff who work in health care and educational settings and their families throughout the state, said Summer Tonizzo with the NC DHHS office of communications. Tonizzo said the helpline received 82 calls from Jan. 1-May 15. Of the 82, one individual identified as a teacher/school employee.
CMS provides staff with information on how to access resources for mental health and wellness, including the Deer Oaks Employee Assistance Program with free counseling sessions and a litany of resources through the North Carolina State Medical plan, Fambro said.
Ashley said it’s not just about the money when it comes to why educators are leaving the field. Mostly, he said, district officials need to educate teachers and staff on mental health.
“We do a lot of book studies, we have professional development, we’re trained on a rigorous curriculum,” Ashley said. “But you know what we never have professional development on? Work-life balance. Our mental health. That’s not on the top of the list. It should be on the top of the list.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
