Julie Ball

ASH

HAYESVILLE – First-grade teacher Christy McClure will start work at a new school next year.

She plans to drive an extra 10 miles — 20 miles round trip — and she estimates she will earn an additional $12,000 a year.

McClure will cross the North Carolina border into Georgia, where she says her advanced degrees and 15 years of experience teaching will earn her a big boost in pay.

As North Carolina lawmakers debate raises for the state’s teachers, some are taking matters into their own hands.

But they say it’s not just about the money.

McClure, who has been teaching first grade at Hayesville Elementary in Clay County, says as a teacher in North Carolina, the last couple of years have felt almost “toxic.”

Teachers are doing more with less, she says.

“If I felt like teachers in this state were respected more, then maybe I wouldn’t go because we’re in a really nice little community here. But the trend is going down,” McClure said.

Other than a 1.2 percent raise in 2012, teacher pay has remained stagnant for the past six years. Teachers could get a raise this year, but state lawmakers differ on how much that will be or how to pay for it.

A House proposal would raise pay an average of 5 percent. A Senate proposal includes average raises of more than 11 percent, but to get the raise teachers must give up career status protections sometimes referred to as tenure. That plan also cuts teaching assistants.

Both the House and the governor want to increase beginning teacher pay to $33,000 a year. Right now, the state base salary for those teachers is $30,800 a year.

The most recent teacher turnover report from the state Department of Public Instruction, which covers 2012-13, showed the number of teachers who resigned to teach in another state has been increasing since 2010-11.

The number has grown from 312 to 455 teachers in the last three years. That’s still a small percentage of the total turnover, which topped 13,600. The 455 number also remains below 2008 levels.

Included among the 13,600 teachers in the turnover report were more than 2,800 who moved from one North Carolina school district to another and nearly 2,000 teachers who retired with full benefits. About 1,300 resigned due to family relocation.

It’s tough to know exactly how many teachers are crossing the border into other states for better pay.

But principals and superintendents say they know of staff members who are leaving and making more money elsewhere.

Clay County Superintendent Mark Leek says he’s lost four teachers to Georgia in the last couple of years. That doesn’t seem like many, but Leek points out tiny Clay County only has about 100 teachers at its three schools, and these neighboring school systems in Georgia are also small and have very little turnover.

Leek said if those other systems were larger and had more open positions, he’d be losing more teachers.

“When they (teachers) sit down with me, I tell them I don’t blame you,” Leek said. “I can’t argue with them. I’ve got a family myself, and you’ve got to try to provide the best that you can for them while you can.”

It’s not just neighboring states hiring North Carolina teachers.

The Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas and the seventh-largest in the nation, recently hosted a job fair in Raleigh.

A “little bitty” classified ad that appeared in a newspaper announced that the starting salary for a Houston teacher is around $46,800 — about $16,000 higher than North Carolina’s base starting salary.

When someone posted a photo of the ad on Twitter, registration for the job fair soared from about 15 or 20 people to more than 300, said Sheleah Reed, press secretary for the Houston district.

Ten North Carolina teachers, so far, have accepted jobs in Houston. Another six have outstanding offers.

Reed said the Houston district decided to hold the job fair in North Carolina, in part, because of the state’s strong teacher education programs. But also, in part, because of the discussion about North Carolina’s teacher pay. And it didn’t hurt that a former superintendent of Guilford County schools is now superintendent in Houston.

Saying goodbye

Chuck Patterson, a social studies teacher and assistant football coach at Smoky Mountain High School, heard about that job fair, but says Texas is “way too hot” for him.

Instead, Patterson is moving to Georgia.

He said his goodbyes to students at the recent graduation ceremony.

“I had underclassmen coming up to me, hugging me, telling me they’re going to miss me, and they love me,” Patterson said. “I love them too. They’re my kids. They’re great kids. This is a great community. It’s really, really tough to leave it.”

But Patterson said together he and his wife, who is a school psychologist, will make about $30,000 more working for a school system in Georgia.

Patterson, 31, grew up in Sylva. He went to Smoky Mountain High and that’s where he thought he would end his career.

But like McClure, he says he feels frustrated and unappreciated. “And it’s not local education administration, it’s coming from the top,” he said.

Patterson and his wife have an 18-month-old son.

“We don’t want to live extravagant lives. It’s just a matter of being able to comfortably support your family. And just provide better opportunities for our son,” Patterson said.

Still, it was a tough decision.

“There’s a lot of great people here,” he said.

McClure, who is about to turn 43, taught for five years in Georgia before coming to North Carolina. She plans to teach first grade at the primary school in Union County, Ga.

McClure said the problem is not the local school system, but decisions made in Raleigh that are affecting teachers and their classrooms.

“For the most part, our county is pretty decent to us,” she said. “They do the best they can with us with what they’re given.”

At Hayesville Elementary, McClure dealt with cuts to teacher assistants. She says teachers are also dealing with more and more paperwork.

“They (state officials) expect better results with fewer resources and less respect,” she said.

Asked why more teachers don’t leave, McClure said most were born and raised in the mountain community and it’s the only place they’ve ever taught.

“Most people that live here are invested here for life,” she said.

Leek says some teachers who have been in North Carolina for years and are midway or closer to retirement have less incentive to move to another state and start over.

But he also understands teachers are frustrated.

“I’ve been in education going on 28 years. This last year, we have had more new initiatives and changes and mandates placed on public schools than I think we have in the last 15 years combined,” he said. “From curriculum to testing to student data to systems to Read to Achieve and Common Core… it all came out at once. They were bombarded this year.”

Comparing salaries

Depending on the level of education and advanced degrees, the starting salary for teachers in Georgia ranges from just under $31,600 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree to up to $48,200 for a beginning teacher with advanced degrees.

For a teacher with 15 years of experience like McClure, the range is around $42,500 to $66,375. McClure has her master’s and her educational specialist degree so she estimates her salary will grow from around $48,000 in North Carolina to around $60,000 in Georgia.

Nationally, North Carolina ranked 46th in average teacher pay in the National Education Association’s 2012-13 rankings. The average pay in the state was $45,900. That put North Carolina behind most other southern states including Georgia, which ranked 22nd, Virginia, which ranked 30th and South Carolina, which ranked 38th. Tennessee was ranked 40th.

Preliminary estimates for 2013-14 show North Carolina dropping from 46th to 48th, with only Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Dakota ranking lower.

Pay in Virginia and Tennessee varies from district to district. In Tennessee, the state sets a minimum pay scale, but most districts pay more than that, according to Ashley Ball with the Tennessee Department of Education.

Across the North Carolina line in Blount County, Tenn., for example, the pay scale for a teacher with 15 years of experience, ranges from $45,400 to up to $59,400, depending on advanced degrees.

Starting pay for a teacher with just a bachelor’s degree in Blount County is $33,900.

Base pay for a beginning North Carolina teacher with a bachelor’s degree was $30,800 in the current year, and that base pay doesn’t increase until year six.

Base pay doesn’t include county supplements for teachers in North Carolina. Most of the 115 school systems in the state supplement state base pay, but eight do not including Clay County where McClure works.

Graham and Madison counties also do not currently provide a teacher supplement, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

The supplements vary in size. Some larger systems, like Asheville City and Buncombe County schools, pay more to their teachers. But in counties with more limited resources, the supplements are smaller.

During the worst of the previous state budget cuts, the Jackson County school system used its teacher supplement money to save jobs including teacher assistant jobs, Michael Murray, Jackson County superintendent, said.

Murray said this year the system is adding back the teacher supplement and increasing it from 2 percent to 3 percent. He said for the first time, the county is also adding a $1,000 signing bonus to try to recruit teachers.

“We certainly have some very strong teacher working surveys that say we have an excellent county to work for, so I’m trying to find any measure I can to make us more competitive as we continue to lose to other states,” Murray said.

It’s not just teachers who are finding better pay in other states.

Murray described a principal who left for an assistant principal’s job in Tennessee. She was able to make $30,000 more a year as an assistant principal, he said.

He worries about being able to lure teachers and keep them in the future.

“As superintendent, I have big concerns as we move into the future,” Murray said. “With the Baby Boomers now eligible to retire, we’re moving into a time when we’re going to be losing highly qualified teachers and the expectation is how can we recruit the brightest and best if we can’t afford to pay them.”

Chris Baldwin, superintendent of Macon County Schools, described his efforts to hire a guidance counselor from Alabama.

“We were ready to move on an applicant from Alabama, and they looked at the pay scale in North Carolina and determined they would lose $20,000 and actually have to work an extra month in North Carolina,” Baldwin said.

Macon County provides its teachers with a 2 percent supplement.

“That makes up some ground, obviously. And the other thing too, that sends a message that not only does Macon County, the Board of Education, but also the board of commissioners appreciate teachers,” Baldwin said.

Still Baldwin worries the effect of the current pay scale will eventually show up in test scores.

“We’re feeling an impact now, but the true impact is going to be a few years down the road. When we start comparing test scores to Georgia and other states, I think you’re going to see some shifts,” he said.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but when you are able to pay significantly more, you’re going to have your choice of candidates.”

Teacher pay rankings

The following is a look at preliminary estimates for average teacher pay in nearby states compiled by the National Education Association for 2013-14:

• Georgia - $52,924

• Louisiana - $52,259

• Kentucky – $50,705

• Virginia - $49,233

• South Carolina - $48,425

• Alabama - $48,413

• Tennessee - $48,049

• Arkansas - $46,950

• Florida - $46,691

• West Virginia - $45,583

• North Carolina - $45,355

• Mississippi - $42,187