Working Well: A Superintendent’s Perspective on Staff Well-Being.
In partnership with the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments
Posted January 24, 2024 by, Mindi Wisman
Dr. Georgeanne Warnock
Today we highlight the second interview in our Working Well podcast series, which is part of our work with the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE). This series is the by-product of several roundtable discussions with a variety of researchers and educators to gain a better understanding of the well-being practices being implemented in schools and with educators across the country. The aim of the roundtables was to learn how expanding staff well-being practices could support the overall conditions for teaching. The aim of the podcasts is to better understand how an investment in educator well-being can improve student success.
This podcast features a conversation we had with Dr. Georgeanne Warnock in 2023. She has been the Superintendent of Terrell Independent School District, in Terrell, Texas, a district with approximately 5,000 students, since January 2020. Dr. Warnock has twenty-five years of experience in public education as a teacher, high school principal, and Associate Superintendent. In 2022 she was named one of 19 National Superintendents to Watch by the National School Public Relations Association. She talked with Youth Catalytics’ Executive Director Melanie Goodman about managing stress, being an advocate for public schools, restructuring school hours to four days a week to help with staff recruitment and retention, the social emotional health of students and staff, and more.
Melanie recently caught up with Dr. Warnock to hear how things have been going, six months after they instituted changes like a four day week. “It’s been amazing” she said, and while it was mainly established for staff recruitment and retention purposes, it has had several other unanticipated upsides. Student disciplinary issues have decreased by half, attendance is up, and they’ve made significant academic gains. Teacher applicants have quadrupled, and most are veteran teachers with over eight years of experience. She attributes better student performance to having more experienced teachers. So far, only three teachers have left and 98% say they would never want to go back to a five day week. Other activities their district rolled out to build community and create more connectivity among staff have also paid off, like a new staff volleyball league. There have been even more upsides, but suffice it to say, they took a risk and the benefits surpassed all expectations.
Listen to the Working Well podcast
Learn more from Dr. Warnock at georgeanne.warnock@terrellisd.org
In Case You Missed It: the first installment of this series was an inspiring interview with 2023’s Washington D.C. Teacher of the Year Jermar Rountree, which you can listen to here.
Also see the Working Well Resource Directory we created for administrators, teachers, and other staff.