With the last day of school in the rearview mirror, students across Maine are heading into summer break. Many of their teachers, meanwhile, are transitioning to seasonal jobs, some for the fun of doing something different, others out of financial necessity.

The average salary for a public school teacher in Maine is $68,820, according to the statewide teachers union, while the average starting salary is just $45,830.

The state’s minimum salary is set to increase from $40,000 to $50,000 this year (and incrementally each year until 2029) thanks to legislation that passed this spring following years of advocacy from teachers.

But Maine still lags behind most states, per the National Education Association, and even the average wage for all teachers is on the lower end of the state’s area median income range (between $67,000 and $97,000).

Teachers, librarians and ed techs across southern Maine said they love their jobs but a teaching salary often just isn’t enough to cover childcare, pay rent or think about buying a home, especially for early-career educators, those in single-income households or parents.

Seasonal jobs can help close that gap.

The Press Herald talked to eight educators about the extra work they do in the summer, and why they do it.

Patrick Meunier, Bonny Eagle video production teacher and pizza chef

Patrick Meunier landed his first teaching gig as a high schooler. He subbed in to lead an Advanced Placement psychology class recitation and crushed it. In college, the calling resurfaced; he switched his major to Art Education and Studio Art and never looked back. 

“I have been in love with teaching ever since,” Meunier said. 

The 32-year-old has enjoyed his eight years as the Bonny Eagle High School art and video production teacher, balancing 137 students across three classes. But his day doesn’t end at the final bell.  

In 2022, the cost of living began to outpace Meunier’s salary, so he started tossing pizzas after school at Dunstan Tap and Table in Scarborough. In the summer, he works there full time. 

It’s good work, Meunier said, but it cuts into hours he could otherwise spend planning lessons and pursuing his master’s in teaching — a degree that would guarantee a pay raise but requires time and money Meunier said he doesn’t have. 

“I’m grateful. My bosses have been really good to me. But I’ve had to overwork myself,” Meunier said. After a double work day, he said he’s often too tired to cook for himself, and spends extra on takeout.

He is managing this balancing act for now, but is uncertain how long he can keep it up.

“I’m very happy. If I could teach for the rest of my life, I would,” Meunier said. “What I feel, and what I know other teachers feel, is that our salaries are not comparable to the work we do.”

Kate Dumont, Bonny Eagle teacher and lobstering tour guide

For almost two decades, Kate Dumont has taught life sciences at Bonny Eagle High School in Standish. In the summer, she keeps talking about crustaceans and marine life, but as a tour guide with Portland-based Lucky Catch Lobster. 

“It helps that it’s a passion of mine…and it pays to know a guy with a boat,” Dumont said. “I get my kids out on the boat. It’s fun for them to see Tour Guide Kate, Captain Kate, and Teacher Kate.”

The 41-year-old supplements her teaching salary by working at Lucky Catch, but she also gets to apply classroom expertise to her summer work. She took the job 10 years ago mostly to ease worries about how she might cover any sudden expenses. She declined to share how much extra she earns in the summer.

“I’m single and own a house so things pop up,” Dumont said. “Pipes freeze in the middle of winter, so it’s nice to have a buffer.”

On a sunny Wednesday morning in June, Dumont led a group of 14 on a tour throughout Casco Bay, picking up three traps along the way while sharing all the ins and outs of lobstering. Her two fellow guides, plus the boat’s captain, were all Maine public school educators as well.

“I thoroughly enjoy working (at Lucky Catch),” Dumont said. “We’re a super close friend group.”

She’s now able to serve as captain, too, after getting her license over the winter.

Matthew Pfannenstiel, Massabesic science teacher and outdoor camp counselor

Matthew Pfannenstiel and his wife, Shelby, just bought their first home, a modest three-bedroom in Saco. It didn’t feel like a given.

Pfannenstiel, 32, teaches chemistry and physics at Massabesic High School in Waterboro, and his wife, a former teacher, now works as an eligibility specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services. They were able to pay for the house with a mix of savings and family support.

When the couple lived in the Midcoast, Pfannenstiel spent his summers working at an outdoor daycare program in Rockland.

This year, he’ll work at a camp run by the town of Eliot’s recreation department, taking kids on day trips to beaches and parks around southern Maine. He loves to be outdoors, and said the decision to work with young kids was intentional. He cares about the teenagers he teaches during the school year, but is looking forward to a break from their drama.

He expects to earn an extra $5,000 before taxes this summer.

Pfannenstiel said he and his wife often worry about the cost of living, if their salaries will keep up with inflation, whether they would have the money for emergency expenses and whether they’ll be able to afford to have kids.

“The question is, how realistic is that nowadays? We are starting to look at what the numbers mean when we have a family, when we have children,” he said. “Is that something we can afford?”

If finances weren’t on his mind, Pfannenstiel said he’s still be interested in doing a summer job to stay busy. He just might work less.

Sarah Templeton-Bush, Bonny Eagle visual arts teacher and fish house waitress

Sarah Templeton-Bush’s classroom philosophy is simple: be yourself and do what makes you happy. Each summer, the visual and performing arts department head at Bonny Eagle High School takes her own advice, waitressing at Boone’s Fish House and Oyster Room in Portland. 

She started at Boone’s five summers ago to help cover daycare costs for her two young sons, now 7 and 9 years old. But for Templeton-Bush, 40, the gig was never purely financial.

“I’d say it’s fifty-fifty money and enjoyment. Yes, I sort of need the money, but I am also obsessed with it,” she said.

Her sons no longer need daily care, and she’s scaled back her hours — but not her enthusiasm.

“I love waitressing. I’ve been doing it forever and it’s a great way to structure my days during the summer,” she said.

Templeton-Bush is now a veteran teacher of 16 years and department head from a dual-income household, but she still recalls the financial strain that marked her early career. 

“I was already stressed, with the amount of anxiety and energy I spent making sure I knew what the heck I was doing every day. And working through most weekends was hard,” she said.

She sees that same stress in younger colleagues. Still, the classroom remains her happy place.

“Teaching is magic,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Heidi Lynch, Lewiston ed tech and in-home behavioral health professional

During the school year, Heidi Lynch works Monday through Friday as an ed techn in the Lewiston school department’s program for students with special needs and then takes weekend shifts as an in-home behavioral health professional.

Come summer, her second job becomes full time.

“Working multiple jobs is not about earning extra spending money — it’s about paying bills, maintaining stability and supporting my family,” said Lynch, 52. She earns between $350-$500 every two weeks from her second job depending on how many shifts she takes.

Her school classroom includes students with varying support needs. Her in-home position involves working with a child with autism on skillbuilding, supporting independence, and meeting various behavior goals. 

“While I am passionate about both roles, balancing multiple jobs leaves little time for rest, personal commitments, or self-care,” she said.

Both of her jobs involve intense and personal work with her students, and she sees on a daily basis how essential that connection is for development. While she is grateful to work with many different kids in different capacities, Lynch said she hopes for a time when educators don’t need to work multiple jobs to survive. 

“Those who dedicate their careers to supporting children and families should be able to earn a living wage without having to work multiple jobs simply to make ends meet,” she said.

Sarah LaPointe, fifth grade teacher and rock camp counselor

When school is out, Sarah LaPointe comes back for an encore, teaching kids how to rock.

LaPointe, 36, teaches fifth grade at East End Community School in Portland. She also plays the drums, and has found a fitting job at the Maine Academy of Modern Music’s rock camp. There, she helps kids learn new instruments, groups them into bands and guides them to perform a show by the end of two weeks.

She said the summer work is necessary to cover the ever-increasing cost of living in Portland. She estimated it adds about $4,000 to her income, if she also includes “a few cat-sitting gigs.”

LaPointe said she has colleagues who bartend year-round, and she has considered getting a tutoring gig during the school year. But teaching is exhausting — she has lesson planning to do in the evenings — and a summer job feels much more manageable.

The situation is different for teachers who live in dual-income households, she said, but for her, big investments feel totally unrealistic.

“I can’t imagine a single teacher being able to purchase a house at this moment, with just their income,” she said.

Now heading into her second year at rock camp, LaPointe likes that all of the kids really want to be there, and she appreciates the freedom to spend her summer doing something she normally be able to do, that she’s personally passionate about.

“Music is a thing that doesn’t feel like it aligns with a teacher’s schedule,” she said. “I like to try to squeeze it in over the summer because shows start late, and I have to get up early.”

Meg Steele Barker, Bath librarian and history tour guide

For 10 months of the year, Meg Steele Barker is a librarian at Fisher Mitchell School, an elementary school in Bath. When the weather gets warmer, she runs Embark Maine Tours to educate Mainers and tourists alike about the history of her adopted hometown. 

Barker, who is in her 50s, started the walking tour business in the spring of 2021 to welcome tourists back after the pandemic. Her tours are chock-full of fun details about each building and scenery the group walks past, and she shares historic photographs, stories and maps with the help of the Patten Free Library and Bath Historical Society.

During a Wednesday afternoon tour in June, the group passed by Martin Lakeman, a former shipbuilder at Bath Iron Works, watering the flowers outside his historic house. 

“Some of the most memorable moments for me are when we run into people we know in Bath, like my students or people who live in the houses that we pass on the tour,” Barker said.

June is Barker’s busiest month with the end of school and the start of her tours overlapping, but she always wears a smile on her face when she’s sharing her knowledge and passion for Bath’s past with those around her. Barker said she does it for pleasure, without a financial motive.

“I am one on a continuum of people who’ve cared about Bath history and want to share it,” she said.

Anne Ervin, Portland middle school ESL teacher and Sea Dogs concessioner

Anne Ervin, 54, has been a teacher for 26 years, including the last five at King Middle School in Portland.

Early in her career, when she was a single mother, she waitressed year-round to supplement her teaching salary.

“It’s very difficult to support a family on a teacher’s salary,” she said. “If we want to attract and keep great teachers, we really need to be providing more of a sustainable living wage.”

She doesn’t waitress anymore but still keeps a summer job.

This will be her second year working concessions for the Portland Sea Dogs, and she relishes the opportunity to be around different people, often tourists, who are excited to be at the ballpark. She makes between $4,000-$6,000 in the summer but it offers a reprieve from the more demanding task of teaching, where she works with multilingual students.

And she still gets to interact with children. During a recent game, a young boy ran to the concession stand asking for something to protect his signed baseball from the rain. Ervin helped make a makeshift container out of plastic cups. The boy paraded around with it “like a trophy,” she said.

Her teacher instincts, it seems, don’t take the summer off.