It’s back to school time. Across New Mexico, students are zipping up new backpacks, memorizing locker combinations, and in some cases, walking into classrooms with substitute teachers. There’s a national teacher shortage, and New Mexico is feeling the effect. Many districts here are struggling to hire enough teachers. One local district is trying to tackle the problem.
Robert Pounds was on his way to his favorite Whataburger, to order the usual - number two, Whatasize, jalapeños - when he noticed a giant billboard: Gadsden ISD hiring teachers.
Pounds was already hinking about applying to teach in Gadsden. He was getting ready to retire after 27 years teaching science in El Paso. But he felt like he wasn’t done in the classroom and thought it would be nice to make extra money on top of retirement. So that billboard caught his eye.
“I said wow, they really are out here,” Pounds says. “They’re really looking for teachers. So I sent an email, presented my interest in the position, and I got an instant response.”
He now teaches biology and chemistry at Santa Teresa High School, in Sunland Park.
Gadsden ISD wants to recruit more teachers like Pounds. Because, like many districts across the state, it’s had trouble staffing its schools. At the start of this school year, Gadsden ISD had about 40 teacher vacancies.
Nicholas Wohlgemuth is the principal at Santa Teresa. He says the issue isn’t necessarily getting enough applicants to fill those positions. “The quality of the candidates sometimes is a little concerning,” he says. “Just not meeting the qualifications and requirements that would best benefit our students.”
In the past, Wohlgemuth says, he’s decided against putting unqualified teachers in the classroom. “We made the choice to leave those positions vacant until we were able to find the right person for the job,” he says.
This happens in schools all over the country, and all over New Mexico. The Albuquerque Journal found that many districts - including Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces Public Schools - started off the school year with vacancies.
“Fewer and fewer young people are going into education as a career,” says Travis Dempsey, the superintendent of Gadsden ISD. “So while we have more needs, we’re not replenishing those pools.”
More needs because Gadsden is one of the fastest-growing school districts in the state.
Dempsey says some prospective teachers might have been turned off by New Mexico’s controversial teacher evaluation system. “When it first rolled out it was pretty rocky and teachers have been beat up a little bit with it,” he says. “It really probably deterred a few people from going into education.”
And for those who do go into education, there’s not a ton of financial incentive to stay in New Mexico, when they could earn substantially more money right next door in Texas. This problem is especially pronounced in Gadsden, a literal stone’s throw from the state line.
“We’re five minutes away from El Paso, Texas,” Dempsey says. “Their salary schedules are higher than ours. And to be competitive we need to get those salaries higher, quite frankly."
For reference, the starting salary in El Paso ISD is $48,300. In Gadsden, it’s $36,487.
Despite these challenges, Dempsey and his team are working hard to fill every job opening. They got $40,000 from the state education department to dedicate to teacher recruitment, and used it to launch an advertising campaign. Hence the billboard near Robert Pounds’ favorite Whataburger, plus TV and radio ads.
Dempsey hopes the campaign reminds teachers on the job hunt that there's an entire school district between Las Cruces and El Paso.
"We're between two much larger communities," he says, "and so sometimes we get a little forgotten."
In the future, Dempsey would like to put that extra money toward new teacher stipends.
Principal Nicholas Wohlgemuth says he’s already seen a difference. “This year compared to last year our candidate pool has been a lot better,” he says. “We’ve been a lot more satisfied with who’s come through our doors to interview for our positions.”
It’s hard to say how much that’s due to the ad campaign. Robert Pounds isn’t the only new science teacher at Santa Teresa. He’s joined by two first year teachers, one from El Paso and one from Wisconsin. They learned about the job openings from family members.