CEDAR CITY -- Working well over 40 hours per week while not making enough money to buy a home, dealing with increasingly pushy parents, rising tuition costs, increased government regulations and growing class sizes are a handful of reasons not to enter the teaching profession.

But nearly every teacher will say it's still worth it.

Seeing the smile on a student's face when she finally understands the math problem or mentoring a student when he is having problems with friends or at home is part of the reason teachers become teachers.

One thing's for sure: It's not for the pay. And for school districts looking to hire educators, sometimes there are more strikes against them than there are pluses in their favor.

Struggling to retain Undoubtedly districts throughout the country are having trouble finding teachers, and Southern Utah is no exception. "The number of applicants has dramatically reduced," said Iron County School District Superintendent Jim Johnson. And administrators from Beaver and Washington counties agree.

While the teacher turnover rate for the three counties is relatively low, the districts said, each year it becomes increasingly tough to fill slots opened by retiring teachers, those who choose to be stay-at-home parents or the ones who simply leave Southern Utah.

Each of the three counties seem to have their own hurdles, too.

The Beaver County School District has a hard time recruiting, in part, because of its rural setting.

People who want to teach in Milford are especially hard to come by, Beaver County School District Superintendent Ray Terry said.

Washington County struggles with teachers who can't make enough money in the district to buy a home, so they're essentially forced elsewhere.

Iron, meanwhile, has a hard time for a variety of reasons, whether it's fewer applicants, lower salaries, increasing cost of living or competition from other districts.

However, the Iron County School District isn't the only one that faces stiff competition.

"One of our challenges is competing with Iron and Washington districts," Terry said.

And as teachers become harder to find, Terry said he's worried that larger districts will "up the ante" to attract better, more qualified teachers.

But even large districts like Washington are feeling the impact of fewer teachers.

"We're spending a lot more time and money in recruitment," said Marshall Topham, Washington County School District Assistant Superintendent over secondary education. "Before we didn't have to recruit."

States like Nevada and Wyoming are enticing many Utah teachers with promises of a signing bonus and higher salaries -- which is a draw to many single teachers right out of college who need to pay off tuition-related debt.

"There's no question we're having to compete with districts outside the state as well as districts inside the state," Johnson, the Iron County superintendent, said.

So far, though, the Beaver, Iron and Washington districts aren't seeing a lack of quality teachers, just quantity.

"We were very lucky in who we hired were quality teachers. But (the teacher shortage) could hinder quality," Terry said. "We were lucky this year."

Make teaching more attractive Districts are doing nearly everything they can to entice teachers to stay in Southern Utah. Because public schools are, for the most part, controlled by the state, many of the incentives originate there.

For instance, to entice educators in certain fields like special education, math and science, the state offers bonuses. But that means the new teacher has to continue to teach in the state for a set amount of years or they won't get the money.

Districts are also hiring unqualified teachers who then enter an Alternative Route to Licensure program in which they can take specific classes over a few years to become proficient, certified teachers.

That's one big change in the last couple of years.

The Washington County School District wouldn't hire anyone without full certification three years ago, but last year they hired 29 and this year 39 who will enter the ARL program.

"Not too many years ago we wouldn't have considered those," Topham said. "We're just hiring people that before we wouldn't have hired because we didn't need to. We're now using tactics that once before we considered not as appropriate. And how long can we keep doing that, that's the question."

How long they can do that depends on what more the state or national government can do to stop potential teachers from steering clear of the profession.

Even salary is ultimately determined by the state, which can pose challenges.

Some people who enter education leave for higher paying professions.

Johnson, Terry and Topham said people choose to make $50,000 or more as an engineer instead of $30,000 teaching with a math degree.

Most pay scales are relatively the same across districts because they get a determined amount of money for every full-time student.

That money is then used for salary, benefits, building expenses and everything else that goes into a district's budget.

"It's been difficult to maintain the level of (health care) coverage ... and not have it cut into salaries, so we try to balance that," Johnson said. "That's an area that we're struggling with right now."

And if more students registered in the Iron County School District, but the district didn't hire more teachers in order to save money that could go toward salary, class size would grow, which in turn hinders education, Johnson said.

Districts are also struggling to retain teachers because of government mandates like No Child Left Behind.

"With NCLB, and a lot of the different accountability issues going on, it seems like education is under a lot of fire right now, and, quite frankly, a lot of people have shied away from it," Johnson said.

"We have to make teaching somehow more attractive," Topham said.

It's not for the money There's no doubt Southern Utah University's well-known education program trains many of the area's teachers. "We're very fortunate to have the university here," Johnson said. "That's a real blessing for us."

And many of the SUU graduates stay in Southern Utah to work with few intentions of leaving.

Three new Enoch Elementary School teachers are a prime example.

Nicole Mayer, Wendy McDonald and Lana Eldredge grew up in the area, have family here and don't want to leave.

All three graduated from SUU, and, starting this week, will begin their first year teaching.

And despite the hardships teachers face, not one of them would rather do something else.

Like all educators, Mayer, McDonald and Eldredge knew the cons of the job before making the decision to work for the school district.

And so did fellow Enoch teacher Michelle Dawson, who grew up in Enoch and also graduated from SUU.

"I think my kids keep me here," said Dawson, who is entering her third year teaching in the Iron County School District. While she knows she could make more money elsewhere, she likes the small-town feel of Enoch.

Bonnie Cox, who's taught for a combined 20 years in two different districts, also likes Iron County.

"It's a good place to live," she said.

Because Cox worked for 12 years in Sevier County and the Iron County School District only recognized about half of those years, she even took a pay cut when she and her husband moved here.

But having taught for 20 years brings her closer to retirement, and, because many others from Southern Utah are in her same position, that could add to the shortage of teachers.

"I believe that we have a pretty good percentage of our teachers who will retire in the next five years," Terry said.

For now, though, Beaver, Iron and Washington counties are doing what they can with what they have.

"So far we're holdin' our own," Topham said. "Without question, I am concerned with what this means for the future."

From The Spectrum

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C11.