Stay, UEA begs new teachers

Charlene Hall fell in love with teaching while volunteering in her child's classroom and chose to make it her life's work.

But now that she's two months on the job, with its 16-hour days and time away from family, she hopes the love affair can last.

"I understand . . . it gets better," said Hall, a first-grade teacher at Park View Elementary in Payson, who says life experience helps her cope. "I've had a family, I know there's trials, and you pick up and move on. "

But it's tougher for young rookies, strapped with low pay and student loans and feeling overwhelmed and unappreciated, she said.

A study says almost half of them won't make it past the five-year mark.

"That is a disgrace," said Nikki Peterson, associate director of the Jordan Education Association UniServ. "We are seeing these people leave in droves . . . saying, this isn't worth it."

The Utah Education Association hopes to help. Friday, its convention offered new-teacher workshops all day, from turning parents into partners to preparing for licensing tests.

Some 500 teachers pre-registered, UEA President Pat Rusk said. She hopes they'll gain support they need to stick around.

Utah State University studies indicate it's critical they do.

Its educator supply and demand studies of 2001 and 2004 found only half of 3,600 teachers graduating from Utah colleges each year take jobs here. And 40 percent of those who do quit within the first five years. That, combined with growing enrollment and teacher retirements expected to hit 1,000 a year within the next decade, adds up to a teacher shortage.

Utah also has the nation's highest class sizes, the lowest per-student spending, and it pays beginning teachers an average $26,000 salary, making a tough start for rookies.

"The odds are stacked against them. We just wear them out in the first three years," Rusk said of new teachers. "They say, how long do I do a job where I won't be successful?"

Heidi LeBaron, a USU student who wants to teach deaf children, has seen friends walk away from the job after one or two years, some due to stress, others to start families.

Still, she is determined to press on. "We're just going to keep going."

State programs aim to retain new teachers by forgiving student loans and mentoring. But the latter is largely unfunded.

Jordan District has hired seven roving professionals to free up others for mentoring time, Peterson said. But she says the district hires 600 teachers a year. Many need mentors, who will go about the task for free, often while overwhelmed themselves.