LEWISTON — Often school committees are told that teacher morale is low — and because of that low morale, teacher turnover is high.

Superintendent Bill Webster told the Lewiston School Committee on Monday night that he wanted to know what the turnover rate was, but until recently, he had no solid numbers.

Webster analyzed two years of numbers on how many teachers and staffers left their jobs and why.

He said the figures did not reflect “the image communicated to this board on more than one occasion. We’ve had 10 or 11 percent of turnover of teachers.” That’s 49 out of 451.

Roughly a third of that number covers retirements and about another quarter represents teachers with whom the district chose not to renew contracts.

That leaves 5 or 6 percent of teachers who likely left to work in other districts, Webster said.

There’s room for improvement, he said, but the rate is not as high as some may believe.

“This is important information for you to have,” he said.

In 2015, the teacher turnover rate was 11.4 percent, or 51 out of 446.