For midstate teachers, summer jobs can be far from the norm

The prospect of having a long summer break is a perk of teaching, but some Middle Georgia educators use the time to work in a different field.

Some teachers help with various camps and other educational endeavors throughout the summer, while others, such as Rutland High School’s Tiffany Hill, go a completely different route. Hill, 34, has worked with her father’s air conditioning business since she was 15.

“I do some programming for him, but a lot of it is wiring and pulling wires,” she said.

Her father, Ermon Hendrix, owns Ermon Controls Inc. in Danville. Hill said the hands-on work provides a change of pace from teaching English and language arts.

“It’s something different, something to change up the summer,” she said.

As her children — 5-year-old Hadley and 2-year-old Riley — have gotten older, the desire to spend time with them over the summer has led to a more part-time schedule. Hill was soaking up the sun with her kids and teacher friends at Lake Tobesofkee recently, but she still works for Hendrix as needed.

“That’s another thing I like about working with my dad. It’s really flexible,” she said.

Hill’s students have been somewhat surprised to hear about her summer work. They’re often caught off guard by the notion that teachers might do other things outside the classroom.

“They thought it was really cool that I do something else,” she said.

Hill isn’t alone in making the choice to keep working after the final bell rings. Amanda Akridge, a third-grade teacher at Vineville Academy, said she doesn’t have an additional job this summer, but that’s a departure from her norm.

“This is the first summer I have not worked in six or seven years,” she said.

Besides the financial considerations, Akridge said her time baby-sitting, cleaning, teaching reading at the Methodist Children’s Home and even working on a south Georgia farm helped keep her busy.

“I’m kind of the person, I get bored if I don’t have a routine,” she said.

Akridge was born in Macon but graduated from Worth County High School in south Georgia and was around the rural lifestyle then. As a result, working with crops, hay and livestock wasn’t a foreign concept for summer employment in the past.

“I’m a country girl,” she said. “I just grew up around that kind of stuff.”

B.J. Shepherd, president of the Bibb Association of Educators, said he knows of plenty of teachers who work outside the educational realm. While some of them do so during the school year at restaurants and retail stores, the numbers certainly increase over the summer, he said.

“It’s very, very common,” he said. “It’s way more common than you would ever realize.”

While those like Akridge may relish the opportunity to stay busy, Shepherd said there’s always the risk of fatigue, particularly since the teaching profession is such an involved one during the school year.

“I think there’s a definite chance that you’ll get burnt out, and I think that’s very common for teachers,” he said.

The most prevalent reason Shepherd has heard for teachers working a second job is related to pay. Teacher salary concerns are well-known, and recently the Bibb County school board approved a budget that includes a 3-percent raise for all school employees for the 2016-17 school year.

Shepherd, a third-grade teacher at Williams Elementary School, credited district leaders including Superintendent Curtis Jones and school board President Lester Miller for taking the necessary steps to increase teacher pay. That, in turn, could keep teachers from feeling the need to work a second job just to make ends meet, he said.

“In Bibb County with the leadership that’s in place, ... we’re going to get the raise, and it’s going to turn around,” he said.

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "For midstate teachers, summer jobs can be far from the norm."