Rural educators celebrate teachers-to-be
Jul. 30—Four Northwest Missouri honorees are among those each receiving $1,000 grants as they finish their training to become teachers.
The Missouri Association of Rural Education granted 22 honorees statewide this scholarship at an event on July 21. The four regional recipients are Gerri Madison of King City, Jaiden Flora of Guilford, Delaney McPheeters of Lawson and Abby Clawson of Eagleville.
Madison said she decided to attend Missouri Western State University after several years of work as a substitute teacher inspired her to wholly commit to the profession. She said she would like to work in a rural northern Missouri school but she has also worked with Central High School students.
For those who commit to it, this course of study leaves you well-prepared for any situation, Madison said.
"I felt very well prepared to teach students at Central, and I feel very well prepared to teach students at North Andrew (R-VI School District), where I'm going to be this year," Madison said. "It's based on my experience subbing and on just how well Missouri Western has prepared me in its education classrooms."
Flora was an active participant in the Future Farmers of America and became inspired to explore agriculture education as a career. While enrolled at Northwest Missouri State University, Flora has been determined to avoid taking on student debt, holding down a full-time job and seeking scholarships wherever they might be found.
This will become more difficult when her student-teaching semester occurs since trainees usually must report to their assigned school full time for very little or no pay. That's after paying tuition and fees to sustain their university enrollment for that time. Stipend programs are starting to develop but remain uncommon in rural school districts. A grant of $1,000 makes all the difference.
"Getting an understanding of all the expenses outside of college, I know, makes it very difficult, especially during their student-teaching semesters," Flora said. "But these scholarships that are granted to us help so much. It is very, very beneficial."
Superintendent Dustin Skoglund, who leads the South Nodaway County R-IV district based in Barnard, where Flora attended, said he's one of the fortunate rural administrators in that there are no current openings among his roughly 25 teaching positions. The people he hires tend to make long-term commitments to the district, though many peers can't say the same.
At any rate, the norm is that even if rural educators carefully manage every dollar, they have little left to attract teaching talent. Kansas City-area suburban districts offer higher pay overall, and too often, smaller districts act as training schools, as Skoglund put it. There, new graduates bite the bullet, work for lesser pay, gain experience and promptly move on to bigger areas where they can earn more.
The Missouri Association of Rural Education is pivotal in how it steps in to ease the individual financial burden that occurs during times like the student-teaching semester. That gives the new hires fewer reasons to seek greener pastures.
"The small communities in particular — and I don't want to pit rural schools against suburban schools, or urban schools — but, I think, sometimes we're an afterthought," Skoglund said. "And I think you could pick any one of us, not just South Nodaway. You can look at the student-teacher ratio and know how valuable that is, in terms of positive student outcomes."
Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem
