Academic road warriors

The trend of traveling teachers is increasing

By Heather Kronmueller ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- It's 12:20 p.m.

Tiffany Marquart is supposed to be teaching an art class at North Elementary in Fruitland, Mo., in 20 minutes, but she's stuck behind a tractor on Highway 25 near Gordonville, Mo., and knows she's not going to make it on time.

Marquart doesn't live in Gordonville. She's only coming from that direction because she just got finished teaching art classes at the Gordonville Attendance Center.

As she stares at the back of the tractor helplessly, she reaches for her cell phone, calls North Elementary and says, "I'm going to be late."

Marquart's dilemma is one typical of 24 other traveling teachers in Jackson and another 14 in the area who go from one school to another every day for the simple reason that if they don't, the classes wouldn't be taught.

Officials at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri State Teachers Association say even though they don't keep track of the exact number of traveling teachers in the state, they do know plenty are out there.

Keeping the pace

Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Sikeston, Mo., school districts all have traveling teachers. And while the teachers are quick to say they do it for the children, they also admit it sometimes leaves them feeling burned out.

It's a problem district administrators would like to resolve, but with already tight budgets they say it's impossible to have specialized teachers for art, music and physical education in every school. Instead, their only option is to try to make the traveling a little easier on the teachers.

Denise Cramer taught reading for special needs students at several schools in the Jackson district for 12 years.

"With a job like this you realize you're supplying a need for the district and you do the best you can," Cramer said. "But after that many years I was very burned out."

Cramer now substitute teaches in the district.

Steve Borgsmiller, superintendent of the Sikeston school district, said having teachers for several buildings is not a great practice, but it's one they can't do without. Schools in his district share music, orchestra and language teachers.

"Due to the needs or due to enrollment we have to do what we have to do," he said. "It's not something we like to do, but the teachers realize the necessity and that it's the only way."

Marquart realizes the same is true in her district.

"It's not an ideal situation, but the school district can't do anything else," she said, noting the district couldn't afford to hire an extra art teacher for just three hours per week. "I would much rather travel than have these kids not have art."

Marquart's students at Gordonville Attendance Center say they look forward to her class on Thursday mornings.

"I like art class because it doesn't seem like work like the 30 math problems we have to do," said first-grader Kelsie Hale. "And it's fun."

Allison Mauk, also a first-grader, said she would be sad if she didn't have art classes because she loves to paint and draw -- things she doesn't get to do a lot of in her regular classroom.

Planning on the run

Marquart spends one morning a week toting a cart with her art supplies and student work from room to room at Gordonville. The other four are spent at the Primary Annex. In the afternoons, after a quick lunch, she jumps in her car and rushes over to North Elementary where she spends the rest of her day.

The only time Marquart has to herself is when she's making the 20-minute drive across town.

"You get scatterbrained when your planning time is taken up traveling," she said.

That's why North Elementary principal David Gross says it's so important to give Marquart and the five other traveling teachers at his school as much down time as possible. He wants to make them feel at home when they get to his school in the afternoon.

"I was a traveling teacher for six years and spent two years eating lunch in my car," said Gross, who traveled around teaching physical education in elementary schools and the high school for six years.

"As an administrative team we try to make their schedules to where it's not like they're running from here to there just in time. We try to minimize their extra duties as much as we can for them."

The Cape Girardeau school district has about eight traveling teachers this year, but will add more next year when the district makes its five elementary schools into kindergarten through fourth grade centers and adds a middle school for grades five and six.

Teachers who have spent a full day in one building for years will find themselves traveling from school to school in the fall.

Cape Girardeau superintendent Dan Steska said the best situation would be one where no teachers travel, but it's just not possible.

"It's all a matter of cost," he said. "It's not the preferable way to do things because there's some loss of time, but cost is the bottom line."

Because Steska and other administrators realize the traveling teachers will have added stress next year they are taking steps to help make the transition a little easier.

"One thing we did was try to let them know early what will be expected of them so they can begin to think and prepare," he said. "We didn't want to wait until the last minute in case it is totally unacceptable for someone and they wanted to look for another job."

He also said the traveling teachers will be involved in developing the instructional programs, scheduling and budget.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 128