There were 97 statements that teachers agreed or disagreed with across categories such as retention, school and teacher leadership, managing student conduct, and available time. Compared to 2022, NHCS improved on 94% of those metrics.
“There's an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, and that one indicator has gone up 10 points since 2022,” NHCS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said. In 2022, only 69% agreed with that statement, whereas in 2026, 79% did.
“The way you treat people matters. The way that you interact with people has an impact on the way they feel. And I think that my expectation is one of servant leadership,” Barnes added.
However, despite local improvements, NHCS ranks below the state average on most metrics. For example, on the statement “I feel comfortable raising issues and concerns that are important to me,” 82% of respondents across the state agreed, compared with 79% in NHCS.
“We're going to have to talk about it and resolve issues if we want to get better. And I think when we get to a district where no one feels concerned about raising problems, that's where I want to be,” Barnes said.
He added that he’s focusing on the growth in these scores compared to the last two surveys from two and four years ago, “so it comes down to the question about what's more important: proficiency or growth.”
His focus areas for improvement were the statements on which teachers agreed at or below 70%.
A category where this was a prominent feature was teachers’ use of time. Only 56% agree that the non-instructional time provided is sufficient. That’s time spent grading or lesson planning.
“I talked to principals, I talked to teachers, there's never going to be anything that's good for kids and convenient for adults at the same time. And so we have to find the balance point with that,” he said. “What are we doing to minimize things that distract teachers from having to teach?”
Another area for improvement is student conduct. Notably, there's already been some improvement: 69% of teachers now say students follow rules, up significantly from 57% in 2024.
Top concerns from teachers about student conduct were disrespect by students (62% agreeing this was a problem), disorder in ‘unstructured areas’ like hallways and bathrooms (62%), and then disorder in the classroom (48%). But when compared to 2024, a higher percentage of teachers thought these were problems.
One possible explanation for this is the professional development the district has undertaken around Safe and Civil Schools and the introduction of more positive feedback into the school day. Barnes said he told his principals last summer: “I want you to make 100 good phone calls in a year, I want you to just randomly call a parent and tell them why their kid’s amazing.”
Another reality that the survey assesses is how students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are doing.
This year, 66% of NHCS teachers believe students arrive with their basic needs met, up from 60% in 2024. The state rate this year is higher at 68%.
Barnes said he’s working on those issues with community partnerships, but students not having enough resources has been a part of the district’s story.
"It's just important to know that ongoing challenges around teacher workload, time management, student well-being are never going to go away, like I'm never going to go, ‘Oh, only 100 kids didn't get food this week, that's still a problem,” he said.
Another area for improvement is the 68% who agreed with the statement, “I wouldn’t want to work in any other school.” Another was that 66% thought “the professional development provided to them was differentiated to meet their needs.”
In addition to viewing the district-wide rankings, the public can also see these results broken down by each individual school, where some rank much lower than the district’s average.
Barnes said he’s taking that data for a couple of those schools and is “building a pulse check protocol where we want to do a deeper dive into conversations with staff, with teachers, about how to improve the culture.”
Current academic research indicates that at school, the most significant impact on a student's performance is the teacher in the room, followed very closely by the leader in the building. Barnes said he wants to focus on the principal as a driving force of that culture in each school.
“And while there's a minimum standard of excellence to be allowed to work in this county, and we have the ability to demand that, and so that we can't forget that accountability creates some conflict too,” he said.
