Shrinking teacher pool makes mid-year hiring tough for Re-1

Shrinking teacher pool makes mid-year hiring tough for Re-1

December 4, 2001

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

It may not seem like a high number, but losing four teachers and one assistant principal in the space of a few months may be a record for the Re-1 school district.

Superintendent Bill Thompson said Thursday that the district rarely sees any vacancies during the school year, let alone four.

The four teachers all resigned for personal reasons, according to Thompson, and the school district has yet to replace them all.

Sonja Halsey, a lower-level Montezuma-Cortez High School English teacher, and John Fontes, MCHS’s former assistant principal, turned in resignation letters earlier this month. Both Halsey and Fontes were hired at the beginning of the 2001 school year.

Kristin Haun, from Durango, took Halsey’s place, and MCHS math teacher Steve Whiteman took over for Fontes. Whiteman’s position has yet to be filled.

Wendy Rufino, the former director of the TAP program at Cortez Middle School, left when her husband took a new job in California. Her replacement, William Faught, was working at the middle school as a permanent teacher substitute before taking over for Rufino.

Boulder resident Erin Hubbell filled the vacancy left by Ron Wallace, a language-arts teacher at Cortez Middle School.

Fortunately, three of the teachers were replaced fairly quickly, but getting replacement teachers is becoming more and more difficult as the teacher pool drops and other states offer bonuses and higher salaries.

"Each year, it’s just going to get tougher and tougher," admitted Thompson. Local teachers often transfer to Shiprock, where they can make as much as $10,000 more than in the Re-1 school district.

But Thompson said all of the replacement teachers are fully certified and qualified.

As for the students, Thompson admitted the vacancies may cause problems with continuity in the classroom but said, "Young people are pretty flexible."

All new teachers in the district, whether they come at the beginning or in the middle of the school year, are assigned a mentor to ease the transition into the classroom.