Richmond Community Schools presents employee retention survey; district to use results for targeted training and school-level follow-up

Richmond Community Schools on April 9 reviewed results from its annual employee retention survey and described concrete next steps for using the data at the school level, including a planned series of monthly paraeducator trainings and more targeted principal-led follow-up.

The presentation, given to the Board of Trustees during the work session, showed 317 responses this year — about 35% of employees — and several measures moving in a positive direction. The district said it will break results down by school and share narratives with building leaders so principals can use the findings to guide improvements.

Stacy Mott, the presenter for the retention-survey report, said the questionnaire has been issued in a consistent format since winter 2023 to preserve trend comparisons. "Participation survey is completely voluntary, and it's completely anonymous," Mott said, adding that the survey takes "probably 5 minutes to fill out." He told the board the district intentionally kept many questions the same year to year to track changes over time.

Key figures Mott highlighted included 317 respondents this year (up 64 from 2024), which he said represented about 35% of employees; 66.9% of respondents said their job is satisfying; and the share of staff who said they "can be themselves" around their supervisor rose to 77.3% this year. On specific challenges, the proportion naming student discipline as the top difficulty fell from 57.7% two years ago to 41.6% this year.

Mott described how the district uses the survey data: results are broken down by school and shared with principals and cabinet, narratives are cleaned to avoid identifying individuals, and cabinet and building leaders use the findings to plan targeted supports. He told the board that two days after visiting several buildings the cabinet had already scheduled monthly training for paraeducators to begin within weeks, and that many issues reported in narratives were being resolved quickly through improved communication channels.

Board members asked about response rates and timing. Mott said the survey is consistently sent in January; this year 317 responses out of roughly 800 employees represented about 35% participation. He noted calendar timing (January–March being a difficult stretch for teachers) and the district’s interest in keeping the survey timing consistent for trend tracking.

Discussion at the meeting touched on how the district responds to narrative comments and how principals receive their school-level reports. Mott said principals receive raw and cleaned narrative data and are asked to identify actions for their buildings: "Take this data and figure out how it helps you to make better decisions in your building," he told the board.

What’s next: the district will continue the same survey format with possible small question edits, share school-level breakdowns with principals in the coming weeks, and run the new monthly paraeducator training announced during the meeting. The presentation emphasized that the survey is a tool for data-driven decisions rather than an end in itself.