PED: Teacher reinforcements are on the way in New Mexico

Aug. 27—As a newly licensed chemistry teacher, Maria Gigliotti was a hot commodity for New Mexico this year.

Gigliotti, 25, just started the rookie season of her teaching career at Del Norte High School after securing her license to teach in New Mexico just about a month ago.

"It's going really well, I'm really enjoying it," the 10th grade teacher told the Journal in an interview. "The students are wonderful. ... I'm very excited to be a part of the educator community in New Mexico."

Gigliotti is part of a more than 2,100-strong regiment of new people to have received their licenses in New Mexico since February, according to the state Public Education Department. About 1,400 more licenses are awaiting approval, the department said.

From the beginning of July last year to the end of June this year, nearly 5,200 new teachers joined the state's workforce, PED data shows. During the same period a year before, it was less than 2,900.

"The message is getting out that teaching is a great career, and New Mexico is a great place to be a teacher," Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said in a news release. "Our goal is now within reach to assure that every New Mexico classroom is led by a certified professional educator."

The PED has also licensed 156 new administrators and 40 new school counselors this year, according to the release, and has issued 18 Native Language and Culture Certificates, which allow people to teach languages and cultures specific to Indigenous tribes and pueblos.

New Mexico still needs math, science, special education and elementary school teachers, not to mention social workers, school counselors and principals, said Layla Dehaiman, interim director of PED's Educator Quality and Ethics Division.

Several factors have helped to make teaching in New Mexico a more enticing career, the PED said, including a temporary waiver of licensure fees through March and legislation approved earlier this year to increase minimum salaries for teachers by about $10,000.

Investments in teacher residency programs, such as one at the University of New Mexico in which Gigliotti participated, have also helped. Such programs allow budding new educators to receive a stipend to work with current teachers and build experience in classrooms, and then get help being hired once they complete their residency.

The slate of incoming teachers comes at a good time, as New Mexico — along with much of the country — continues to face a teacher shortage. The PED said that could be as high as 1,000, based on the number of long-term substitutes in classrooms at the end of the most recent school year.

Worth noting is that, last month, analysts told the Legislative Finance Committee that, while enrollments have decreased over the past five years, the total number of full-time public school teachers in New Mexico grew by 996, including 470 teachers in charter schools.

And, of course, 2,100 new teacher licenses may not mean the state's vacancy prayers have been answered. What it does mean, Dehaiman said, is more possibilities to stem the number of educators leaving the field.

Right now, it's a matter of getting people placed in schools that will be a good fit.

"We're now reaching everyone that applied for a license, that became a licensed educator, and we're placing them in the right school that's going to meet their needs and meet the school's needs," Dehaiman said.

It's not clear how many of the newly licensed teachers have been placed in schools so far. A PED spokeswoman said that's because the department needs 40-day data from the new school year to determine those numbers, which it doesn't have yet.

In the meantime, the department is pointing teachers to a webpage dedicated to recruitment, which includes an interactive map that links to district and charter school job sites.

Having grown up in Albuquerque, Gigliotti said she's in the right place at Del Norte, even if she still has plenty to learn.

"I would be remiss if I didn't admit to some intimidation from how challenging of a career choice it is. ... I'm learning a lot about the school processes and just the minutiae of being a teacher," she said. "That said, I have felt so supported at every aspect of this process."