The three young Chicago Public School teachers drive to the United Center, park their cars and make their way toward the luxury-suite section of the stadium. But an extravagant night on the town isn’t what’s on the agenda. It’s 4:30 in the afternoon, after all, and they’ve come here straight from their classrooms.
Along with several other public school teachers, the three are there to prepare for an evening as luxury-suite attendants for a Bulls game. Each teacher will maintain four suites throughout the evening, starting with food setup, then ensure that ticket-holders’ drinks stay fresh and their edibles replenished. Though it extends a teacher’s school day well past 11 p.m., the extra cash-from $200 to $400 a night, according to one-is worth the extracurricular work.
With their day officially starting at 8:30 the next morning, gaining this supplemental income can be an exhausting proposition. But many teachers, in Chicago and nationwide, in districts large and small, urban and rural, have taken to moonlighting year-round in order to pay bills, buy classroom supplies, finance vacations or save for a home.
Brandie Parise, 26, who teaches 3rd grade at a school in the Pilsen neighborhood, waitresses at both the United Center suites and at a Lincoln Park bar/restaurant called Stanley’s on the side. And she says she’s not alone in her double duty.
“Those teachers who aren’t married have second jobs,” she says. “I know five off the top of my head who work at the United Center, and I know at least three others who work at other bars or restaurants.”
According to “The Status of the American Teacher,” a survey conducted every five years by the National Education Association, in 1996, 34.8 percent of teachers nationally earned additional income within the school system during the school year (by coaching or running a club, for example), while 13.1 percent earned extra money during the school year through outside employment.
That figure, however, may be low; some teachers don’t tell their districts about moonlighting for fear they’ll appear uncommitted to the children.
“I’ve had a side job for five years,” says 32-year-old Catherine, a 1st and 2nd grade teacher at a South Side elementary school who doesn’t want her administration to know she moonlights. “I took one to pay graduate-school loans for my teaching certificate and to pay for my regular living expenses.”
When she started moonlighting at the United Center, she worked 11 shifts a month; she has cut back to about three nights a month because the schedule was too tiring. She misses that extra dose of disposable income, though. Without it, she can’t always do things her other single non-teaching friends can, such as attend concerts and plays.
“I really love being with the kids and learning about new things and exposing them to that,” she says. “But the [low] pay is starting to really drain on me. I feel like I work really hard but don’t get to do things outside of school.”
Teachers moonlight for many reasons, says Anne Davis, president of the Illinois Education Association and a former teacher.
“It’s not uncommon for single parents who are teaching to need additional funds to raise their children because the salaries aren’t sufficient,” she says. “There are also new teachers who have to pay loans and moonlight because beginning salaries are low.”
The issue disproportionately affects women, because they make up the majority of the teaching pool. About 75.5 percent of the state’s teachers are women, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The average teacher in Chicago is 45.6 years old; in the rest of Cook County, the average is 43.1, according to the board of education.
Although the reasons may be understandable, Davis says, moonlighting can be detrimental to students and teachers.
“It’s really a burden for teachers when they have to work after-school hours because it doesn’t allow them to do things like grading papers or doing lesson plans. It makes it very difficult, especially when planning time for the classroom isn’t provided during the school day.”
Starting salaries in Cook County for first-year teachers with a master’s degree (excluding the Chicago Public School system) range from $23,878 (Community Consolidated School District 168 in Sauk Village), to $47,953 (Niles Township Community High School District 219 in Skokie), according to the state board of education.
Anywhere from 4 to 9 percent of that salary, however, is pension contributions. In Chicago, starting salary with a master’s is $37,237; 7 percent of that includes pension contributions.
Average starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Cook County, including Chicago, is $29,155; not including Chicago, the average is $29,115.
Though many teachers say they wish they earned enough so that they wouldn’t have to take on extra jobs, they focus on the benefits of their profession, such as summers off–although most say it’s the norm for them to work longer hours in the summer at their supplemental jobs. And of course they aren’t the only professionals who moonlight; police officers often work as security guards, for instance.
“We’re not bringing in money; it’s not a business,” says Parise. “If it was, we’d probably be making more.”
Some teachers say the pay isn’t the only monetary issue.
“The Chicago Public schools are competitive in terms of salary, but we have to get a lot of our own supplies,” says Cathleen Buckley, 24, one of several Chicago Public School teachers who waitresses at Kendall’s Pub, a sports bar on Lincoln Avenue. “To get my classroom up and running and how I wanted it–and not dip into my savings–I had to [have a second job].”
Though schools make a strong effort to supply what teachers need, budgets are limited and most teachers need to supplement their classrooms, especially if it’s their first year teaching that particular grade.
Buckley says she has bought educational games for her 5th graders at Hendricks Academy on the South Side out of her own pocket, as well as books for a novel unit, along with teacher guides.
“The more I teach the less I have to buy things, and teachers are great about sharing, so that’s helpful,” says Buckley. “But if you want everyone in class to have something, you have to get it on your own. I spoil my kids too. I have to buy lots of rewards and things to encourage behavior. I get fun, crazy pencils or other school-oriented things, like journals or clipboards.”
But the money wasn’t Buckley’s only motivation for getting a second job.
“I wanted adult interaction and I’ve met lots of new people,” she says.
For some teachers, such adult interaction can include moonlight-site encounters with their students’ parents, who may be unaware that their children’s teachers bartend or waitress. While most teachers interviewed said they weren’t worried because their second jobs aren’t in the school’s neighborhood, some do run into parents of students–and don’t seem to mind.
“Heck, I get better tips because they know me,” says Dawn Bullock, 35, a 6th grade teacher in Crete-Monee, who waitresses at House of Kobe in Schererville, Ind., every Sunday during the school year and more often over the summer.
Bullock also sells a line of kitchen tools through home parties year-round. Her husband, a Crete-Monee teacher who attends graduate school (so he can move up the teacher pay scale), doesn’t have time for an extracurricular job during the school year but either paints houses or teaches during the summer.
Besides for school supplies, the Bullocks use the extra cash for some basics: day care for their daughter, a new refrigerator and stove, improvements for the house, as well as bills and the mortgage.
“We eat out every once in a while,” says Dawn Bullock. “We don’t have a maid, we don’t take family vacations.”
But in the end, says Bullock, the rewards outweigh the sacrifices of teaching.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she says.
