Aiken County Schools Add Checkpoint Surveys and Personal Talks to Improve Staff Retention

Aiken County Public School District rolled out 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day check-ins after digging through exit data at an Aug. 25 board session. Staff losses? They dropped. In early 2026, 455 workers walked out the door, which is a sharp contrast to the 600-plus exodus each year from 2022 through 2024.

"We are seeing an increase in our retention numbers overall," said Katrina Riley, the district's director of human resources, per The Aiken Standard. "So we're excited about that."

The bleeding was worst in 2023. That year, 722 workers quit. Fast-forward to January 2025, and departures fell to 280.

What made them go? Dig deeper into those surveys, and you'll find complaints about principals, grinding hours that ate into home life, and feeling invisible despite hard work. Most respondents, though, didn't cite any additional reasons for leaving.

Board members wanted more than screens and spreadsheets during that Aug. 25 gathering. They pushed for human connection.

"I understand that we are in an age of technology, but we are also in the people and the children business," said board member Patricia Rhinehart-Jackson. "At any point in time, does anyone bother to have a conversation with our staff and just generally talk to hear and listen, to get a pulse of what some of the issues may be, or some of the strengths that they feel are things that we're doing good?"

Riley confirmed that principals and department heads now get nudged to sit down with staff face-to-face. These one-on-one chats aren't afterthoughts—they're part of what she calls a "proactive retention" strategy.

"It's been discussed in the past, but this is something that we are wanting to do moving forward," Riley said.