Superintendent Maurice Ghysels told city officials last week that the region’s high cost of living is scaring away some of his best teachers.
Ghysels, speaking during a meeting between City Council members and officials of the Mountain View Whisman School District, said he was concerned about the district’s ability to attract and retain talented teachers due to the great expense of living in Silicon Valley.
“The cost of living in the Valley is astronomical,” he told council members. “And when you look at the salaries of wages for teachers — not just starting, but teachers with master’s degrees at the top of the schedule — it’s just heartbreaking because we can’t compete. They cannot afford to buy a home in Mountain View or the near vicinity, so we just lose a lot of teachers.”
Ghysels said even the highest paid teachers have a difficult time finding affordable homes. Many say they may have to leave for greener pastures — cheaper areas farther inland in California, or in other states — to pursue the American dream of owning a home.
Recently, Ghysels said, he had an emotional talk with one math teacher at Crittenden Middle School regarding the challenges teachers face.
“She’s just an outstanding math teacher and she told me a couple days ago almost with tears in her eyes that she loves the team, she doesn’t want to leave, but she can never figure out how she’s ever going to buy a house unless she moves to the San Joaquin Valley or Oregon,” he said. “And that’s where she’s probably going to head.”
“It’s tough, but we work with what we can work with,” he added.
The district’s attrition rate is about 10 percent a year, according to Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Totter. “This attrition results from teachers moving due to job transfers for spouses out of the area, cost of living and housing availability, and some teachers are released from employment,” she said.
A beginning teacher’s salary is $44,609 and a mid-range salary, with eight years of experience and a master’s degree, is about $59,000, according to Totter. The district also pays full-time teachers the full cost of premiums for medical, dental and vision insurance and a life insurance policy, she said.
In a separate interview, Ghysels said teacher salaries across California are similar, but housing is more affordable elsewhere.
“Schools have a big correlation with the health of the community in a number of cofactors, such as housing and safety,” he said. “I also think that any organization, whether it’s a school or a high-tech company, talent is key, and I worry about it.”
However the school is still able to attract good talent, he said. The district recruits at job fairs and colleges, and has agreements with several universities for student teachers and intern placements which sometimes result in full-time teaching positions.
“Teachers go into teaching for much more than money,” Ghysels said. “They go into it with a sense of purpose and meaning.”
Even so, he said, teachers “still want and deserve to have a piece of the action of housing the United States, and in some cases they leave or talk about leaving.”
E-mail Susan Hong at shong@mv-voice.com
