Majority of Wilkinson County Primary teachers turn in resignation requests

Teacher turnover is not unusual, and every school district in Georgia deals with resignations and retention, especially this time of year, spring only a week away.

What is unusual, however, is the when the majority of one school’s teachers all announce they’re leaving, all in the same month.

Such is the case at Wilkinson County Primary School, where eight teachers recently put in their requests for resignation, effective at the end of the school year, according to the Wilkinson County School District’s March 11 regular meeting agenda. On top of that, two paraprofessionals at WCPS also recently announced they’re leaving the district.

The School Board’s March 11 agenda listed a total of 14 teachers or paraprofessionals on its “Resignations List,” with 10 of those coming from WCPS, one from the elementary school, one from the middle school and two from the high school.

Attempts to reach Superintendent Angela James were unsuccessful. The Times Journal Post will continue to follow up on this story.

WCSD ranked 135th in teacher pay out of the 159 county school districts in Georgia in 2022, which was the last time the Georgia Department of Education released average compensation data to the public. However, Wilco’s compensation was not out of line for smaller school districts. More often than not, the larger the district, the more teachers make.

The Department of Education most recently placed the WCSD’s student enrollment at 1,036 student, making it the 19th-smallest out of Georgia’s 159 county school districts. The WCSD’s student enrollment has been cut almost in half during the last three decades. In October 1994, for example, the Georgia Department of Education’s FTE “headcount” for the WCSD was 1,993 students. Fast forward to October 2024, and that number was 1,036 students. Back in the 1990s, there were always closer to 450-500 students at Wilkinson County Middle School. Now, it’s less than 250.