From waitressing to home health aide, these are the side jobs many veteran Brevard public school teachers say they work to make ends meet.
“I can’t make it on a teacher’s salary,” Jim Finch, a digital arts teacher at West Shore Junior/Senior High School, said while protesting for teacher raises at a recent School Board meeting.
Finch has been a teacher for 18 years, and at one point had four jobs outside the classroom – including athletic coach and digital artist.
He was among some 100 teachers gathered at the Brevard School Board’s Feb. 12 meeting, demanding a pay increase. Dressed in red shirts and lining the sidewalk outside the board headquarters on Judge Fran Jamieson Way in Viera, they waved signs at motorists and chanted slogans like “Show us the money, we’ve earned it” and “Red for Ed.” They later packed the board room. The protest was organized by the Brevard Federation for Teachers, the union that represents local educators.
The union and the district are currently at an impasse over teacher salaries. Both sides have agreed to non-binding mediation, but a date has not been set for the meeting. School district officials say the money is just not there to boost teacher compensation to the level the union wants.
Nearly one in five teachers nationwide worked second jobs in 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of a dozen long-time Brevard teachers interviewed at the protest, all of them said they work at least one extra job currently, or had at some point in their careers.
“Enough is enough,” Gemini Elementary physical education teacher Billy Bechtol said, referring to the district. “They treat us like a used car and lowball us on everything.”
Bechtol has taught school for 21 years, six of those at Gemini. He mows lawns, referees wrestling matches and gives baseball hitting lessons to make extra money. His wife is also a teacher at Gemini. She does private tutoring and waitresses on the weekends to help make ends meet.
Gemini music teacher Brian Meisenburg echoed Bechtol’s sentiments.
“I’m just asking for a living wage,” Meisenburg said.
Average pay for Brevard teachers is $47,065, plus health benefits and pension contributions, according to the Florida Department of Education.
Meisenburg said he makes $50,000 a year, after teaching for 15 years, and has two young children. He works several side jobs, including playing piano at weddings and other events.
“I would settle for the babysitter wage, which is what? Two or three dollars per kid per hour,” Meisenburg said. “It’s absolutely horse manure.”
Kathryn Lahn has taught for 34 years and has a master’s degree. The third-grade teacher at Roy Allen Elementary has worked as a tutor and as a records clerk for a home healthcare company.
“Sadly, the day my son graduated from college he made more than me at his first job,” Lahn said, adding that the expectation that teachers will buy their own supplies has only added to the financial burden.
Several teachers said they have considered leaving the public schools for more lucrative careers in the private sector or teaching college. They say their four-year or graduate degrees are worth more outside the school system. Yet there are tradeoffs, as many private-sector jobs that teachers might get offer no health benefits, paid leave time or pensions, and little in the way of job security.
Weighing all these complex factors, along with the noble reasons why they became educators in the first place, most teachers like Turner Elementary teacher Stephanie Hill, who is a single mom of three children and also works as a waitress, said they can’t quite bring themselves to walk away. “I love my job and that’s why I stay,” Hill said.
