Teacher Burnout, Stress, Exhaustion...and Hope: Businesses Rally to Support School Staff During Covid-19

When we reflect over the past year and the additional stress we all experienced due to the pandemic, looking at things that worked to reduce stress may be a key indicator of how we can all help build resilience to future stress. There are so many important roles during the pandemic, with educators at the top of the list. When uncertainty and instability seemed to be the new normal, school staff did what they could to ease fears and uphold academic standards for those they taught, often unrecognized and without support. We can’t ignore the continual trauma and stress-related impacts added to all of our roles during the pandemic, and teachers are no exception.

We knew going into this pandemic was that school staff was already stressed, and the education system was already experiencing the repercussions of a stressed employment base. In working with schools and school districts my whole career, it’s typical that educator health and well-being are often at the very bottom of the chain on a school hierarchy. Teachers are expected to put their health, well-being and stress on the back burner to pour into those they teach without regard to their own needs. Often, school districts have very limited funding or lack properly aligned resources to deal with educator stress management and well-being, but in looking at the data, how can we keep ignoring it?

You can’t pour from an empty cup, and school staff members have been holding empty cups for a while.

The current system of helping school staff manage stress and increase health and well-being isn’t working, resulting in teacher burnout, compassion fatigue and other stress-related health issues. Here’s why we should all be taking notice concerning teacher’s stress levels: their stress directly impacts our kids. Teacher stress directly affects student academic performance, per a study done by Penn State. The stress level of the staff at your child's school directly impacts student’s academic achievement. And if school staff stress isn’t enough to make us wake up, how about no longer having enough qualified school staff to teach our kids? We had already begun to have a teacher shortage before the pandemic began.

According to The Economic Policy Institute, “The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought. When indicators of teacher quality (certification, relevant training, experience, etc.) are taken into account, the shortage is even more acute than currently estimated, with high-poverty schools suffering the most from the shortage of credentialed teachers.” The pandemic has made the teacher shortage even bleaker, with a study by Rand finding that Covid-19 has dramatically accelerated the number of teachers leaving the profession. Pair that with the declining enrollment at universities’ education departments, and we can’t sit back and wait to find solutions.

Looking at the data, we can see that addressing educator stress isn’t optional but imperative. Why then aren’t more schools able to focus on getting school staff the help they need? Typically, the roadblocks are funding and time. School systems often have little to no funding for teacher health and wellness in good times, let alone during times of Covid when school budgets were instantly frozen, or funds had to be allocated to supporting technology for students? At The Rooted School, we instantly found that Covid shut the doors to school staff when they needed help the most. We had schools wanting our school employee wellness program for their staff but had no way to purchase it with frozen or reallocated funds. Administrators were distraught in having to pause or cancel projected programming due to lack of funds because they knew that their staff desperately needed the program for stress management and well-being. 

We decided there wasn’t time to waste in helping schools find an answer to their dilemma.

Being a former public school teacher who has the first-hand experience with educator stress, helping wasn't optional. We pivoted and began to reach out to the business community to look for partnerships to help. We created the Wellness Match Initiative, which offers a 'Buy One, Give One' program that would allow businesses to support schools at a time when they need it the most. The Wellness Match Initiative is simple. When a business purchases The Rooted Team: Employee Wellness Program for their own company, we automatically gift the same amount of licenses to a school or district, immediately giving schools the resources they need. If a company already has health and wellness programming built into their company, they can “sponsor” a school and donate programming to schools. 

And as we made our own Field Of Dreams to help get school staff much-needed resources, we found the saying “if you build it, they will come" to be true. We were blessed to have great companies jump on board to help these teachers get the programming they so desperately needed. One of our biggest partners to come forward is TDS Telecom who donated to six school districts in the Madison area. TDS genuinely wanted to help the communities they served, and we were blown away by their generosity. Along with TDS, we partnered with other businesses such as The Healthy Place, CI Therapies and Complete Mobile Dentistry to bring even more programming to schools through our Wellness Match Initiative.

“I chose to support teachers and school staff because children are the future of our communities. I like to thank teachers and school staff similar to how I thank the military for their service! We have to take care of those who are leading schools. The more we can invest in their well-being, the better. I want to strengthen and empower them to be able to give their all to our communities kiddos! I love and appreciate The Rooted Family and what they are doing. The way they are “mindfully boosting brains” is remarkable and lifelong impacts are being created!” - Tim O'Brien The Healthy Place, Lively Vitamin Company.

The school surveys speak volumes.

We sent a recent survey to school staff participating in The Rooted School: Employee Wellness Program. We were so inspired by how they responded with how much this program was needed and appreciated. We were thrilled that school employees felt support by their local business communities. Support and connection are critical components of neurological well-being that we talk about in our programs, but to see the school staff community feel it from businesses supporting them reinforced those emotions associated with neurological well-being.

To be honest, when our team read the survey results, we had to pause several times to take a tissue break and just cry. It was heartbreaking to hear these educators' stories and their stress and, at the same time, incredibly inspirational to hear how our program immensely helped as a constant source of support in a prolonged storm of stress. We read over and over again, “Thank you for prioritizing the mental health of those who are having a huge impact on our nation's future! We appreciate being appreciated by our community. Thank you to TDS and other sponsors for giving us access to these important tools during this very stressful school year." 

We are motivated to get our programming into as many school districts as we can regardless of their wellness budget, and we are so happy to have businesses such as TDS joining us in helping future schools. Developing partnerships to deliver stress management and health and well-being helps build equity in a school district. When teachers have tools and skills to help boost their well-being, we have classrooms where students gain the academic skills they need. Stress affects everyone differently; however, we can all take steps to help ourselves so we can pour back into the cups of those who need us most. We can’t thank our business partners enough for helping pour into the communities when they needed help the most.

We can do more with your help.

We have schools on our waitlist, and we need your help. Whether you’re a business looking for employee wellness programming or would like to learn more about sponsor a school or district, or you’re a school wanting to learn more about our programming or being added to our waitlist, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.