Dozens of Tuolumne County teachers will retire within the next 10 years, forcing schools to forfeit decades of experience.
It mirrors a statewide teacher trend, where concerns are also growing about a lag in teacher recruitment and training.
Statewide, schools are projected to surrender about a third of their teaching force to retirement in the next decade, according to a year-long study commissioned by the nonpartisan Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.
Columbia Elementary School expects to lose about 10 out of the 27 teachers it employees, 11 out of 30 are expected to leave Jamestown Elementary School and at Summerville High School, about 20 out of 34 will depart during that time period.
Curtis Creek School District Superintendent Rick Hennes predicts that 14 of the district's 33 teachers will retire from both Curtis Creek and Sullivan Creek elementary schools.
Area school officials say it's part of the natural cycle, which is coming to an end with an aging generation of teachers.
The teacher exodus will leave a shortage of 100,000 teachers in California, just as the state's colleges see a drop in the number of students entering teacher-training programs, according to the report released Wednesday by the Santa Cruz-based nonprofit.
The number of applicants to programs where teachers receive credentials dropped 8 percent in 2003-04, after a 4 percent drop the year before.
So far Columbia Elementary School hasn't had a problem replacing retirees, Superintendent John Pendley said. The school gets between about 60 and 140 applications when it advertises for a position.
This may be because Tuolumne County is an attractive place to live for young teachers, with typically well-behaved kids and greater-than-average parent involvement, he said.
But the departure of teachers who have worked there for decades will still affect the school.
"You lose teachers that not only have years of experience in learning curriculum and how to deliver instruction, but in their understanding of the community and the kids," Pendley said.
Dave Urquhart, principal of Summerville Union High School agreed, but pointed out that the teachers will leave over a span of ten years, allowing the school time to rehire.
That retirement could be near for so many teachers at Summerville could be because it has a veteran faculty whose members stay for years. This is coupled with declining enrollment, which doesn't allow the school to hire many new young teachers, Urquhart said.
Jamestown Principal Kent Tipton said recruiting is important during such a transition.
"Anytime you lose a good teacher it has an impact, but if you can replace quality with quality, then you're holding your own," he said.
The study, however, is predicting a more dire situation statewide.
California must start ‘‘building staff capacity to deliver on its promise of higher student achievement," said Margaret Gaston, executive director of the center. "You cannot do that without an investment in the teacher work force.''
As the state moved to reduce class sizes at the start of the decade, it started a host of programs to attract and retain more qualified teachers. But several of those programs have since lost funding, Gaston said.
In May, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched California Teach, a statewide plan to add 1,000 new science and math teachers a year to classrooms within five years. The program tries to encourage science, math and engineering majors to bring their talents to public schools.
Most of the students will minor in education, said Lynda Goff, director of the University of California science and math initiative.
‘‘This gives kids the opportunity to get the very, very best training from research universities and prepare them to go into the classroom,'' Goff said.
U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., introduced similar federal legislation in Congress this week. That plan would award scholarships to math, science and engineering students who commit to teaching when they graduate.
While those programs are expected to boost the number of teachers in those subject areas, California also needs to address the uneven distribution of its most qualified teachers, Gaston said. The report said the majority of underprepared teachers work in schools with the most minority and poor students.
The center classifies about 20,000 California teachers as underprepared, meaning they either do not have a credential in the subject they are teaching or they are working under an intern or temporary permit. That number is a dramatic improvement over the 42,000 underprepared teachers the center reported in 2000-01.
State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said a pay raise is the best way to attract great teachers.
‘‘We must address this inequity now to ensure that every student in California has the opportunity to meet those high standards,'' he said.
The state's minimum starting teacher salary is $34,000. The top salary varies by district, but on average, a public school teacher with 30 years experience will make about $70,000 a year, said Hilary McLean, a spokeswoman for O'Connell.
On Wednesday, O'Connell and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, who both sit on the board of the California State Teachers Retirement System, said they will vigorously fight a proposal by Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge, that they said would privatize the pension fund and slash pensions. Angelides said it would make the profession less attractive to prospective teachers.
But Richman said his pension proposal, which would apply to all state employee pensions, would only affect people hired in 2007 or later. He said his plan would bring teachers' retirement benefits more in line with those in the private sector, although they would still be superior.
‘‘What reason is there for public employees to retire at 50, 55 or 60 when most people in the private sector are retiring at age 65 or after?'' Richman said.
Contact Information:
All press inquiries should be directed to:
John McDonald,
Stone’s Throw Communications •
(310) 798-3252 or (310) 880-5332 •
Email: john.mcdonald@stonesthro.com
