65 teachers have left the RCSD since July 1, 2026. Let that sink in. That doesn’t include retirement. It is how many teachers have basically said I’ve had enough I can’t take here any more and moved on. (We will update the number as the school year goes on.). Think of the impact of that on our students. Every time an experienced teacher leaves the Rochester City School District, something walks out the door with them that cannot simply be replaced by hiring another person.
Experience walks out. Relationships walk out. Knowledge of our students, families and community walks out.
And our students pay the price.
RCSD talks a lot about recruiting and retaining teachers. But if we are serious about retention, we need to start talking honestly about why educators leave.
Teachers are being asked to do more and more while being given less time and fewer resources to do it. New initiatives are continually added to their plates. Decisions are made far away from classrooms and then handed down to the people expected to somehow make them work. Teachers increasingly feel micromanaged rather than trusted as professionals.
Meanwhile, many educators are trying to teach in classrooms where serious student behavior can repeatedly disrupt instruction with inadequate consequences or support.
Think about what that means for the other students in the room.
A teacher can prepare an outstanding lesson. A student can come to school ready and eager to learn. But when instruction is repeatedly interrupted, everyone loses. The students who are doing exactly what we ask of them are expected to sit there, wait, refocus and somehow keep learning through the disruption.
They deserve better.
Then there are the basic responsibilities any employer should be able to get right.
More than a year after RCSD’s transition to a new payroll system, educators continue to raise concerns about being paid correctly. Teachers should not have to scrutinize every paycheck wondering whether their employer got it right. They should not have to spend their time chasing money they earned.
And now, instead of using Superintendent’s Conference Days to give educators meaningful time to collaborate, plan, address the real problems they are facing, or participate in professional development that actually applies to their work, teachers are being asked to complete CPIs that many consider unnecessarily invasive.
At some point, Central Office needs to ask a very simple question:
Are the things we are asking teachers to do actually helping them teach children?
Because every unnecessary mandate takes time away from something else.
Every poorly planned professional development session takes time away from meaningful collaboration and preparation.
Every new box that needs to be checked takes time away from students.
Every behavioral disruption that goes inadequately addressed takes learning time away from an entire classroom.
And every experienced teacher who finally decides, I’ve had enough, leaves behind students who must start over with someone new.
This isn’t just our opinion. Research has repeatedly found that teacher turnover can negatively affect student achievement and disrupt schools beyond the individual classroom where a teacher leaves.
That should concern everyone.
Superintendent Rosser and the leadership at Central Office need to spend less time deciding what educators need from offices downtown and more time listening to the people working in our schools every day.
Ask teachers what is preventing them from teaching.
Ask them why their colleagues are leaving.
Ask them what would make them stay.
And then actually listen to the answers.
Teachers aren’t asking to be left alone or shielded from accountability. They are asking to be treated like professionals. They want safe, orderly classrooms. They want time to plan and collaborate. They want useful professional development. They want reasonable workloads. They want to be paid correctly and on time. And they want the resources and support necessary to do the job they entered this profession to do.
Most importantly, they want to teach.
RCSD cannot claim that student achievement is its highest priority while creating working conditions that drive experienced educators out the door.
Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions.
If we want better outcomes for Rochester’s children, retaining great teachers isn’t a side issue.
It’s where we need to start.