Dave Bennett, associate superintendent for schools personnel, told the school board Thursday night that the number one reason for teachers leaving the system here, and across North Carolina as well, was to teach elsewhere.

Bennett, in presenting the district’s latest annual teacher turnover report, said that Person County’s turnover rate consistently runs a bit higher than most small districts because of its proximity to the Research Triangle and the Triad areas.

“We’re in an active part of the state,” he said. “People are always moving for a better job.”

When spouses move, teachers leave one system for another, he explained, and, “sometimes teachers leave for a better supplement.”

Although Person County Schools offers an 8.0 percent local salary supplement, larger neighboring districts such as Orange, Durham and Wake offer more.

Last year, 25 Person County teachers left to teach in another North Carolina public school system. Three left to teach in a North Carolina charter school. Three teachers last year left to teach in another state, six left because of family or child care responsibility, and eight left because they were dissatisfied with the teaching profession.

Bennett told the school board, during its regular December meeting, that secondary and middle grades science teachers, teachers for exceptional children, media coordinators and pre-K teachers are the most difficult to find and hire.

Currently, there are 497 teachers employed by Person County Schools. That is over half of the total 850 employees.

During fiscal 2005-06 fiscal, the school system lost 14.38 percent of its teachers.

That figure was up from 2004-05, when the turnover rate was 13.06. In 2005-06, out of a total 487, 70 teachers left Person County Schools. Twenty-eight of those who left were tenured. Eleven of the 70 teachers that year retired with full benefits.

This latest report showed 24 tenured teachers leaving the school system during the 2006-07 fiscal year and six retiring with full benefits.

The five-year average for teacher turnover in Person County Schools is 13.47 percent. That figure is “not bad,” but still too high, Bennett said.

The five-year average turnover rate for North Carolina is 12.53 percent, down from 12.58 the year before. For the past five years, according to Bennett’s report to the school board, “The number one reason reported by school systems [statewide] for teacher turnover is ‘to teach elsewhere.’ Reporting has indicated 18.64 percent — 22.20 percent of the teachers leaving for this reason.”

Nationwide, the turnover rate for 2006-07 was 16.8 percent.