<\/p>\n
You can imagine the conversation is awkward.<\/p>\n
After July 1 of each year, Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger has an agreement to call neighboring superintendents whenever one of their teachers will be moving on to greener pastures: a new teaching gig in Durango when the next school year begins.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a professional courtesy extended by Snowberger to surrounding school districts. With Durango raising its starting salary for teachers fresh out of college to $40,000, it might be a call Snowberger makes regularly this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDan Snowberger has been nothing but professional about the situation,\u201d said Lori Haukeness, superintendent of the Montezuma-Cortez School District.<\/p>\n
Haukeness is likely to be on the receiving end of the call more than she wants: The starting pay for a first-year teacher in Cortez is $29,250, and the district was hit with 22 percent teacher turnover rate between school years 2016-17 and 2017-18.<\/p>\n
Beyond the salary issues, Haukeness said all rural school districts are hurt by a decrease in the number of college students entering the teaching profession.<\/p>\n
In 2005, 9.9 percent of all incoming college freshmen planned to major in education. By 2015, that number had dropped to 4.2 percent, according to the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Amanda Bollinger, one of 21 education graduates this December at Fort Lewis College, said she thought increasing micromanagement of teachers and district rules limiting a teacher\u2019s freedom in the classroom \u2013 rather than relatively low salaries \u2013 was the culprit making teaching less attractive to college students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a field where not a lot of people really want to go that route, and it\u2019s politics. Teachers don\u2019t have a lot of freedom to teach like they\u2019d want,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Haukeness said at her son\u2019s recent graduation at Colorado State University when they asked all the education students to stand for acknowledgment, only 10 of 600 graduates rose.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely, there\u2019s not enough people going into the profession to cover those who are departing,\u201d Haukeness said.<\/p>\n
The Montezuma-Cortez district has struggled with low teacher pay for years, but it has not been for lack of trying to improve salaries. In November 2016, Montezuma County voters soundly rejected a district-requested mill levy that would have raised $4.95 million and brought up first-year starting teacher\u2019s pay to a more competitive $33,368 \u2013 still almost $7,000 less than Durango\u2019s pay.<\/p>\n
Now, officials with the Montezuma-Cortez School District are in scramble mode trying to come up with creative ideas to boost teachers\u2019 pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board,\u201d Haukeness said, \u201cis going to have as a focus for the next several months a discussion as to what options the district has, but our general fund can\u2019t support what we need to do to get our salaries to a competitive level with our neighboring districts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haukeness conducted a mid-year check-in with first- and second-year teachers, and she has heard two refrains from those who have indicated they are likely to be moving on: their spouse is having trouble finding a job in Cortez, and teachers would love to stay in the district and the community, but they can\u2019t make it on their given salary.<\/p>\n
From Snowberger\u2019s standpoint, he says: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to tell a young teacher: \u2018You can\u2019t come here because you\u2019ll be making more money.\u2019 That\u2019s not something we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haukeness remains optimistic voters may eventually provide some relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, if we can increase the quality of our education through the work of good, experienced teachers, that supports the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Southwest Colorado, most districts in the region are dealing with issues more akin to those facing Haukeness in Cortez rather than Snowberger in Durango.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re looking for two teachers, one in special ed and a math teacher,\u201d said Rocco Fuschetto, superintendent of the Ignacio School District, in December. He added, \u201cWe\u2019re in the same situation as every other small, rural district in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n
One problem Fuschetto has begun dealing with is familiar to Snowberger: housing headaches.<\/p>\n
Fuschetto and Ignacio\u2019s school board have begun examining a housing shortage that has been an obstacle in efforts to attract and retain teachers. The district will study entering the housing business \u2013 obtaining a few small 1- or 2-bedroom townhomes or apartments it can lease to young teachers having trouble finding affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Durango also is pinched by its high housing costs, and Snowberger said 9-R, too, might soon become a landlord.<\/p>\n
Across Southwest Colorado, Snowberger said the region\u2019s introductory salaries combined with relatively high housing costs mean first- and second-year teachers are being asked to make ends meet on salaries that are close to the poverty level.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at $40,000 in Durango, given our high housing costs, it\u2019s tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Snowberger said he has had preliminary talks with developers about building units for teachers in Durango.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the districts in our region are going to have to wrestle with this. We\u2019re going to have to get into the housing business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a similar vein, Amy Lyons, superintendent with the Bayfield School District, has established an infant and toddler child care program to help with teacher retention. The district is opening new buildings in 2018 that will allow the district to offer programs and services such as child care \u201cthat would be seen as a value-added benefit for current teachers and teachers interested in our district,\u201d Lyons wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Given disparities in regional salary schedules, teacher retention has become an increasingly tough job for the Bayfield district, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the district has been able to fill all of our positions, we have more openings each year and fewer candidates are applying,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThis school year, we hired roughly 20 new teachers. When I started working in the district 13 years ago, we rarely had more than two or three openings in any given year.\u201d<\/p>\n