A second job becomes a necessity for many teachers in southern Beaufort County

Though Beaufort County's average teacher salary ranks in the top five in the state, local teachers say they have a tough time covering their expenses.

Many have taken on second, or even third jobs, to keep up with the ever-rising cost of living, particularly in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island where housing costs are high.

What the teachers say

• Annette Lee is Beaufort County's Teacher of the Year and is a special needs teacher at Bluffton High School. She has been a teacher for eight years and has a master's degree. But when the 34-year-old mom is not teaching, she's helping at her husband's pizza restaurant, waiting tables at another restaurant or serving as a kayak guide. Over summer vacations, she works four days a week.

She brings in a salary of $44,089 a year as a teacher. After taxes, medical insurance for her family and other costs, she takes home about $2,000 a month. The additional jobs she works brings in an extra $12,000 a year to cover day care for her two children.

Lee says there have been times when she's thought about leaving the teaching profession.

"I thought about it when I first had my children," she said. "We lose a lot of good teachers because (of) day care."

But Lee said her family can't go without the health insurance that her full-time job provides. Besides, the satisfaction of having an impact on young lives makes her profession worthwhile.

"I wouldn't do anything else," she said. "I don't have any aspirations to do anything else."

Lee said a cost of living adjustment wouldn't solve the bigger problem.

"It's a nationwide issue that we're underpaid," she said.

• Lynn Tutuska, a teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School, works three nights a week at the Sage Room so she can live near North Forest Beach.

"Everything on the island is so much more expensive than off," she said. "I joke that I do other jobs to support my career."

She thinks a cost-of-living adjustment would help. Still, she wouldn't dream of giving up her teaching job and believes working a second job is something that just comes with her profession.

"It's just a given," she said. "It makes it very hard; you don't really get to enjoy island life when you're working so many hours."

• Audrey Olmstead, a Bluffton Elementary School teacher who works weekends at a golf course, said, "I think there should be a cost of living adjustment. Everything just seems to be a little bit more expensive" in Bluffton and on the island.

• Joe Bills, a Bluffton High School English teacher, works as a bartender, sometimes full-time over the summer.

"It comes down to the idea that when I chose to be a teacher I kind of assumed I had to do this," he said.

What school district officials say

• District spokesman John Williams said the school board has discussed cost of living adjustments over the past decade for teachers south of the Broad. It's something that never came to pass, he said, in part because of varying opinions on how much costs differ between the two areas.

• Jackie Rosswurm, district human resources officer, said providing cost of living adjustments would be difficult.

"I think we need to be very careful. We might have a little bit of difficulty justifying that," she said. "People choose to live where they want to."

What school board members say

Several school board members agree teacher salaries are low.

• Reid Eikner favors additional compensation based on academic improvement.

"Every teacher in the United States probably needs to make more money, but does that mean a local school board needs to solve that problem?" he said.

Eikner said he would like to give bonuses to educators who can get their students to significantly improve their performance on standardized tests.

"I'm talking 25 percent of your salary," he said, describing the type of compensation he envisions.

• Joan Deery said she would like to provide bonuses for teachers who are doing things to help failing schools improve.

• Bob Arundell worries talented teachers will leave for better financial situations or a place where they don't have to work second jobs.

"My fear is not that the second job is taking away from the quality of the instruction," he said. "My fear is it's just taking them (teachers) away from us all together. They end up moving where they don't have to do that."