New Hampshire citizens vote on school district issues this week in addition to their Town Meeting debates.
The school debates have taken place as rising local taxes increase the pressure on spending decisions.
But this week many communities will be debating under pressure from another direction.
There’s a teacher shortage, and officials say the need to retain existing teachers and recruit new ones approaches crisis proportions.
N-H-P-R political correspondent John Milne filed this report:
New Hampshire is facing a serious shortage of teachers.
Officials say hundreds of new teachers need to be recruited. And, more importantly, teaching veterans need to be persuaded to stay in their classrooms.
State Commissioner of Education Nick Donahue:
Track 4 / 1:47/ Donahue1
Teacher1
40 per cent of our educators are 50 years or older, in a profession that by all counts invites some earlier retirement than others. And at age 55, a number of our folks are going to think about moving out.
In addition to those nearing retirement age, the teachers’ union, N-E-A New Hampshire, says nearly one out of three teachers leaves the job within the first five years.
This is not an abstract statistic to
John Moody, superintendent of schools in Derry.
Last year, at one middle school, Moody said he had to replace one-third of the staff and the principal.
Teacher 2/ 1:40
Actually, prior to the negotiation of the last contract, Derry was losing an exorbitant number of staff, and unfortunately they were experienced staff, I’d say with five or six years of experience were able to look at other school districts in New Hampshire, and say I can do better, not particularly in terms of benefits but in terms of salaries.
Commissioner Donahue says teachers in border towns have another temptation. Within a short commute, they can take jobs in Massachusetts that offer a 10-thousand-dollar raise and improved working conditions.
That creates what Donahue called a “domino effect” as teachers move to fill those open jobs in border communities. That leads in turn to more openings.
Donahue/ 2:45/ Teacher 3
There’s a little bit of a flow from one community to another, and it’s problematic for everybody, because there’s too much transition, there’s too much inequity around communities that keep – get and retain the very best teachers, so there really are some haves and have-nots.
One obvious answer, Donahue says, is increasing pay.
Teacher 4
Donahue 7:54:
Yes, teachers get a lot of vacation time, but when you adjust the salaries to a 12-month schedule, they’re still one of the lowest paid professions. Nationally, New Hampshire’s way behind nationally in terms of our average salaries for teachers.
Average salaries differ sharply from town to town – from less than 30-thousand to more than 50-thousand dollars.
Rick Trombly, a teachers’ union official who has served as Boscawen town moderator, says the intangible issues within a community often are equally important:
Teacher5
4:42: And I think another thing people look at when they think about entering the profession is, is this a profession that is going to reward them psychologically, emotionally, and of course, monetarily. Am I going to have the support of the community in order to educate their children? Some school district meetings, because of the press of tax issues, appear more to be pitched battles than they do seeking ways to effectively educate our students.
Many communities are stretched to their financial limits. They’re looking for other solutions, but so far the search hasn’t produced significant results.
One possibility frequently mentioned is luring people who have left other jobs.
School districts want more people like rookie Somersworth High teacher Dana Hilliard.
He left Boston to return to his home town. He took a job teaching history and American government, working alongside his former teachers at Somersworth High.
Teacher 6
4:08: I took a huge pay cut, almost the equivalent of 60 per cent, when I decided that I would move back to New Hampshire. But I knew, as Machiavelli once said, that the ends would eventually justify the means, so therefore I took the cut knowing that my happiness, my satisfaction that I would get from my new career, would even out. And it has, it has.
Hilliard is among 10 men and women across the state who left other careers last year to enter teaching. Ten.
For N-H-P-R News, I’m John Milne
