Arizona Teachers Hold Two, Three, Four Jobs

Justin Halleck is calling during a break from his job managing the Famous Footwear in the Anthem Outlets. He had to wait for one of his associates to come in so that he could leave the floor for a few moments.

“I need this job," he says. “My wife is still in school. We have a baby on the way.”

That someone works as a manager at Famous Footwear is not unusual. What makes Justin’s case a little different is that this is just one of the jobs he works. It's not even his main one.

Helleck is a full-time general music teacher at Village Meadows Elementary School. Managing a shoe store, working in Sun City where he fixes computers and teaches senior citizens to use software – these are jobs he holds because he needs to pay the bills. (Get Phoenix Patch's daily newsletter and real-time news alerts. Or, find your local Patch here and subscribe).

“Being a teacher is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he says. “I knew I wouldn’t make a lot of money. I also didn’t think that I’d have to work three jobs just to live.”

AMONG THE LOWEST PAID

From Arizona to West Virginia to Alaska to Oklahoma and Kentucky, teachers are fed up with low pay and substandard working conditions. A Patch story last week highlighted teachers using duct-taped textbooks in classrooms with broken equipment.

Around the country, there have been walkouts, strikes, and rallies at state capitals.

In Arizona, the momentum has been building as teachers have been organizing under a group, Arizona Educators United, looking to bring attention to their plight.

As Patch reported, the National Education Association – the largest national teacher's organization – says the average pay for teachers in the state is the 37th lowest in the country.

Meanwhile, a study last year by the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University found that – when adjusted for statewide cost of living – elementary school teacher pay in Arizona is the lowest in the nation while high school teacher pay is 49th.

After the rally in Phoenix last week, Gov. Ducey quickly rejected the 20 percent demand, saying that he will not go higher than the 1 percent he's already offered. He added that there's 9 percent more money available to pay teachers than when he took office.

He did not mention that figure includes money added by the state to hire new teachers to accommodate an influx of new students.

The NEA says that average teacher in Arizona makes $47, 218, substantially below the national average of $58,353.

Recently, Arizona Educators United released their demands, one of which was a 20 percent pay increase.

Even if the average teacher were to get that raise, the teacher would still only make $56, 661 – still below the national average.

Governor Ducey responded by saying the state is only offering a 1 percent increase.

ALMOST NO ONE IS JUST A TEACHER

"I'm a second-generation teacher," Halleck says. "My mom was a teacher so I knew what I was getting into. I knew it didn't pay well. I don't do it for the money. I do it because I love teaching kids."

Halleck has lived in Arizona since he was 11-years-old and his family moved from Michigan. He is about to turn 23. His wife, who is due to give birth to their first child in August, is working on two degrees – elementary education and special education.

As a teacher, he makes $35,500 – about $12,000 below the state average. His take-home pay is about $24,000.

"She has a year left of school before she can start working," Halleck says. "I need to work what jobs I can get, make what I can, to make sure that we can keep our home, be ready for the baby.

"Raising a child is not cheap."

Then there's day-to-day expenses. There's also the student debt that Halleck ran up – and his wife continues to accumulate.

"I'm one of the lucky ones," he says. "I only owe about $30,000. I know many other teachers – people who have two Masters degrees and years of experience who are still working to pay off their student loans.

"Almost no one I know is just a teacher."

WAITRESSES, BARTENDERS, UBER DRIVERS

"I have been a teacher for 28 years and have worked a second and sometimes a third job for all 28 years," Terri Mickelson says. "How else can I support my three children and the send them to college? I have worked retail, server, frozen yogurt store manager, private tutor, valet, artist, gas station cashier, and babysitter.

She hosts scrapbook parties. She frames art, and sells clothes on Poshmark and cosmetics for an online company.

She is 53-years-old.

"I can't afford to retire because I have two children going off to college in the next two years," she says.

Mickelson and Halleck are far from alone.

Renee Clancy has photographed weddings almost every weekend for the past nine years.

"I'd love to have a weekend off," she says.

Lynda Clark teaches 8th grade, runs the school's drama club, and is the sponsor of the school's chapter of the National Junior Honor Society.

And?

"I teach private voice and piano lessons three days a week and I work at a kiosk at Costco over the weekend," she says. "Here is the worst part. I still have to rely on money from my mom each month.

"I’m literally running myself into the ground and I still don’t have enough money."

Jeff Quamo is the full-time band director at Mesa High School where he is all the department head for the performing arts department. He also gives private lessons an average of 12 hours each week, works with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony an average of five hours each week, and performs a number with a number of classical and jazz groups.

He says that, "I have a doctorate degree, 20 total years of public school teaching experience, and my family still lives basically pay check to pay check due to non-competitive salaries, a lack of salary increases, high costs of family health care, and paying back student loans."

Then there's Christina Waite who is a full-time special education teacher who works with children who are deaf. Every Saturday and Sunday and school break, she also drives a delivery route for Amazon.

Michael Devo also works security at Cardinals Stadium.

Jay Robert says the and his fiancee – both teachers – work 30 hours at the same restaurant so that they can pay bills and student loan debt.

"I work full time as a server as well as teach," says Holly Galles. "Guess which pays better?"

Laurel LaFlesch Thompson also drives for Lyft on nights and weekends.

Then there's Jessica Gladdin who teaches high school English and works as a server at a sports bar. On those days, she will work from 7:30 a.m. until 11 at night.

"I am a single mother of two and tried really hard to make it on just teaching income," she says. "Once I had to start going to the food bank to feed my kids, I knew it wasn’t working anymore."

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

"This is not the way it should be," Justin Halleck says. "People become teachers because they want to help people, not because they are looking for a fortune. If they start leaving, if we start losing the people who want to be teachers, what's that going to do to the future.

"We need to held these people, make sure that they can afford to be teachers and not have to worry that if they don't hold third and fourth jobs, then they won't be able to pay their bills."

Halleck says that the recent rallies and other "Red for Ed" actions where teachers and their supporters wear red, is giving him a sense of hope.

"The movement makes me think that things can change," he says. "I see that teachers are standing together and that makes me believe that things can change."

He says that while he would rather not find himself having to walk out – something that teachers are considering – he's prepared to do whatever he can.

"I'll be on board," he says. "My hope is that before we get to that point that the governor recognizes the importance of teachers, the importance of education.

"I became a teacher because I want to make a difference. I think that still counts for something."

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Photo courtesy Justin Halleck.