After hours, teachers shift gears

"Tu pas case mon coeur," sings Karen Collins in Creole French. Her airy voice carries across the dance floor, floating between the two-steppers at Glen Echo's Spanish Ballroom on Oct 26. Then the song changes gears, and Collins breaks out her fiddle and jams with her band, Squeeze Bayou.

The next morning, Collins rolls out of bed—another day of work. After a 15-minute commute, she pulls into the parking lot, walks into work and stands before a class full of students ready to learn computer programming.

Many teachers at Blair and across the country hold other jobs for enjoyment or out of financial necessity. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 20.7 percent of public school teachers in the U.S. hold second jobs, a practice known as "moonlighting."

When Collins isn't teaching, she's playing with two musical groups—Squeeze Bayou and the Blue Moon Cowgirls. Squeeze Bayou shakes things up Cajun style, while the Blue Moon Cowgirls, an acoustic quartet, revives 40s and 50s country music.

In 1998, Squeeze Bayou won the "Prix Dehors de Nous" award from the Cajun French Music Association of Lafayette, Louisiana, for best Cajun recording of the year outside Louisiana.

While music is only a part-time profession for Collins, magnet teacher Tran Pham refers to teaching as his second job. Pham logs 30 hours a week during the evenings and on weekends at Microbac, a company where he is a chemical engineer.

Pham views teaching as a way to take a break from engineering. "Teaching is what I do for fun," says Pham.
Breaks are rare for math teacher Jake Scott, who holds not one but two jobs in addition to his full-time position teaching algebra and geometry. Scott races straight from school to his tutoring business, Top Notch Tutors, where he works for five hours every weekday.

In his third job, Scott owns a real- estate holding company. He receives government subsidies to buy run-down apartment buildings and houses, fix them up and rent them out as low-income housing.

Teachers have many motivations for giving up their precious free time to take on other vocations. According to Tom Israel of the Montgomery County Education Association, moonlighting is most common among teachers just entering the profession. "If you're a starting teacher in the [MCPS] system, you're going to start at $38,000," he says. "Combine that with the cost of living in the area, and it's just not enough."

For Blair's moonlighters, it's not all about the extra cash. Collins opts to spend her free time doing what she enjoys. "You don't do this for the money, because you don't make that much money," she explains. "I do it because I love it."

Scott's reasons are personal as well. As the youngest of 17 children, Scott was the only one to go through college. "I have relatives who are drug dealers, and it's sort of like a competition because I chose to go a different path," explains Scott. "They have their Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs, and my younger relatives see that and are enamored by it. They think the only way to get that is by selling drugs. I want to be an example of someone who succeeds without compromising my moral values."

Pham agrees with Israel that a teacher's salary is inadequate. "[Teachers] don't make enough money to enjoy life and to save," he says. "My philosophy is to enjoy life as you go along, because as you get older, what can you enjoy? Can you climb a mountain? Can you go scuba diving?"

While these teachers are balancing two or more jobs, other Blair teachers appear to have their hands full with just one job. Special Alternative Reading Classes and English teacher Larry Fogel-Bublick can't fathom moonlighting. "Teaching is generally exhausting as is," he says. "There's no time for me to have my own life, let alone get another job."

Assistant Principal Patricia Hurley expresses her concern that outside jobs may affect the quality of a teacher's classroom performance. "But as long as the kids' needs are being taken care of and [teachers] are getting their job done here, then what they do on their time is their time," she acknowledges.

According to Israel, MCPS has no policy restricting moonlighting except that there can be no conflict of interest between the two jobs.

Pham believes that his engineering job helps make him a better teacher. "Most teachers don't know the application part of teaching," he says. "I have real work experience, and it makes all the difference."

As the school week comes to a close, Collins prepares for an upcoming gig at Taliano's, Scott plans to rewire a rundown house, and Pham works on a setup for a new computer program. Meanwhile, most student Blazers look forward to a little rest and relaxation.