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Dr. Lauren: expanded measures lift Creighton teacher satisfaction to 78% for 3'5-year teachers
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Summary
Creighton Elementary District's executive director of human resources told the board that stay interviews conducted Jan'Feb 2026 for 10% of staff show combined job satisfaction for teachers with 3'5 years' experience reached 78% when leadership support and job duties were added to climate measures, above the district's 64% target for 2026.
Dr. Lauren, executive director of human resources for Creighton Elementary District (4263), told the school board that when the district expanded its 2026 measurement to include leadership support and engagement in job duties, combined job satisfaction for teachers with three to five years' experience reached 78%.
"We want their satisfaction to grow from 54% to 64% this year," Dr. Lauren said, describing the district's target. She noted the 2025 baseline (54%) measured only school climate; adding the two new areas produced the higher combined figure.
The findings are based on stay interviews supervisors conducted in January and February 2026 with 10% of staff, focusing on so-called highly valued employees (HVEs). Responses were coded into themes such as school climate, leadership and daily job duties. "These are simple 1 on 1 talks between supervisors and their team members," Dr. Lauren said.
Dr. Lauren told the board the district expected supervisors to address straightforward issues raised during interviews and follow up directly with employees. She cautioned that governance goals are not captured by stay interviews and therefore their effect on daily job duties cannot be measured from this dataset.
On narrower measures, school-climate-only satisfaction rose to 58%, short of the district's 64% target for 2026. "If we only look at the school climate by itself, satisfaction went up to 58%, which misses our 64% goal," Dr. Lauren said. "However, when we include these 2 new areas of leadership and job duties, total combined job satisfaction reached 78%."
Dr. Lauren attributed retention to culture and leadership: teachers reported a family-like atmosphere, teamwork, trust in school leaders and a shared purpose as key reasons they stay. She praised principals as "the architects building this great culture," while acknowledging outside economic pressures the district cannot fix alone.
All school sites met the goal of interviewing 10% of their staff, Dr. Lauren said, though she added that a few district departments did not meet that target. She described HVEs as a supervisor-selected way to identify employees a supervisor particularly wants to retain, not a formal classification.
Board members asked whether smaller class sizes helped workload. Dr. Lauren said planned class sizes were 27.5 students per teacher, but lower enrollment produced an average near 23, which helps reduce grading and management burdens.
She outlined next steps: ask principals to address issues they can fix, continue comparing pay and compression with nearby districts, balance workloads, and improve communications through the district's Great Connection newsletter and staff intranet. The district also continues work by its compensation and compression committee to revise salary schedules for certified and classified staff.
Dr. Lauren closed the update by noting ongoing principal training in instructional leadership, conflict management and social-emotional frameworks such as RULER, and by highlighting the district's practice of recognizing strong teachers in communications such as the Creighton Connection and special education scoop.
The presentation concluded with a statement that the district would continue these efforts and monitor whether changes in pay, workload and supervisor follow-up affect retention measures in future reports.
