James Jones doesn't have to work two jobs anymore, but there was a time early in his education career a secondary stream of income was badly needed.
The longtime teacher and basketball coach took his first job out of college in the Eudora School District, making $32,000 a year including stipends. That was in 1999.
"I thought the $32,000 was going to be more than it was, and I started making a bunch of bills, buying stuff for the place where I was living," Jones, 47, said. "I was spending excess money, and then when I saw the check, the check was $850 to $900 a month. It just so happened I rented from a lady whose husband was a former coach. She had some sympathy to give me the rent for $175 a month because I went to school with her son at UAPB."
Today -- more than two decades later -- that $32,000 would fall $4,000 short of the state minimum for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree. Jones strengthened his financial standing in 2003 when he became a teacher and junior high coach in the Dollarway School District and picked up a secondary job at the Pine Bluff Walmart, where he had worked from 1995-99 as a college student.
Nineteen years later, Jones is fully invested in Walmart's retirement program. He doesn't have to work there anymore, but he's already acclimated to working two jobs.
"I kept going because I like it and it's easy," said Jones, an associate in the store's auto care department on Saturdays and Sundays. "Most of my holidays, I work in here, Black Fridays and Christmas and things like that."
During the school year -- which starts Monday in Jefferson County's three districts -- Jones is an EAST lab facilitator, design-and-model and robotics instructor and boys basketball head coach from seventh-grade to varsity at Robert F. Morehead Middle and Dollarway High schools, now part of the Pine Bluff School District.
Entering his 24th year in education with a master's degree, Jones said he makes $86,000 a year from the district alone, including coaching stipends and pay for other duties. The money Jones makes from Walmart helps him take care of "smaller" bills, while his education salary helps cover his larger bills.
But for less-experienced educators, $36,000 in today's economy may require a balancing act without a second job, discouraging potential hires from going into the field.
Local districts including Pine Bluff have implemented retention and recruitment plans for teachers to attain financial incentives on top of their salaries with the help of federal funding designed to address the effects of covid-19 on education. In the PBSD, staff members must attend 95% of the school year and not be assigned any corrective actions to be eligible.
"This amounts to not missing more than nine days of the 178 student contact days and maintaining professionalism," Superintendent Barbara Warren explained. "The incentive provides $5,000 to certified staff and $3,000 to classified staff. We believe we have exceeded the ALC [Arkansas Legislative Council] recommendation to use these funds, and PBSD started this even before this recent recommendation."
The ALC on July 21 rescinded approval of $500 million in spending authority for the Arkansas Department of Education to distribute federal funding but suggested school districts offer $5,000 to full-time educators and $2,500 to classified employees, a move that reportedly disappointed Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the suggestion shouldn't exceed the $500 million if every school gave such bonuses.
Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, opposed the ALC's decision, saying it traveled through uncharted territory.
"We can give a tax cut to corporations and the wealthiest, but you won't give it to teachers," she said. "We have to look at our dollars. We can't continue to cut tax dollars and wait for adequacy data. We know we can do $42,000."
Hutchinson, who at one point championed an effort to raise the minimum teacher salary to $46,000, left the topic out of a special legislative session earlier this month that addressed the state's $1.6 billion surplus, citing a lack of support in the legislature.
Senate Democrats offered a compromise of asking for $42,000 through the Raising Arkansas' Investment in Schools and Educators (RAISE) Act introduced during the special session. The legislature adjourned without a future date for re-examining the bill.
"The discussion of raising teacher salaries must continue in our state," Warren said. "Education is the profession that makes all other professions possible, but sadly it is the profession that is the most underpaid. Overall we have to address this issue in our nation and most definitely in our state. The disparity in teacher salaries from one end of the state to the other is huge."
Warren said teachers may start work in Pine Bluff but then look for better-paying jobs.
"We often train teachers who move away for larger salaries right up the road," she said. "Our district has worked to increase the base teacher salary by $2,900 in the last two years, but more needs to be done. Although things may appear to have stalled, I truly believe some changes are on the horizon. Our legislators know that the health and wealth of our state depends on the vital human capital of our educators and supporting staff."
Still, Warren said, just having the state consider the issue is a step in the right direction.
"This conversation has been refreshing," she said. "The district will continue to work with our constituent groups to continue the conversations. We all must work alongside lawmakers to help develop real sustainable change that gets teachers our best."
For now, Jones said he hopes his story will help others pursue a postgraduate degree and consider other jobs within a school system like driving buses and extra duties.
"It was well worth it," Jones said. "It took 24 years to get there, but it's well worth the benefits now. Back then, it was a struggle to go from paycheck to paycheck when I first started."
James Jones attends open house at Robert F. Morehead Middle School, one of the former Dollarway district campuses now in the Pine Bluff School District. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)