to travel back when it’s running out. It’s extremely rural, with limited amenities you would find in larger city centers.” To overcome these challenges, the district implemented a comprehensive teacher support system. Since 80% of the district sits on sovereign tribal land where housing can’t be purchased or rented, the district built teacher housing.“We’ve had to build housing for our teachers,” says Hyatt. “We provide it free of charge, paying for their housing and utilities.” Financial incentives form another critical component. The district offers relocation expenses up to $3,000, recruitment incentives up to $20,000 for two-year commitments, retention bonuses for staff who stay, and covers 90% of insurance premiums. These approaches align with research showing that rural teacher retention requires addressing both professional satisfaction and quality of life concerns. The district’s innovative curriculum provides professional fulfillment that aids retention. “When you create a collaborative environment where teachers work together on building relevance for students, we’ve seen people get excited about that kind of work with their peers,” Hyatt notes. “That’s driven a lot of our retention efforts.” RECOGNITION, SUSTAINABILITY, AND FUTURE GROWTH What began as a response to local workforce needs has evolved into an educational model drawing attention across New Mexico and beyond. GallupMcKinley now hosts educators from around the country seeking to implement similar approaches in their own rural districts. “We’ve done about a dozen total site visits from different foundations and schools across the country coming to look at what we’re doing,” Hyatt says.“We’re not perfect, there are things we’re still refining, but we’re showcasing our approach especially for rural communities. Not a lot of this work happens in rural settings because of the challenges, so we’re sharing what we’ve figured out with other rural communities.” The district has presented their model at multiple conferences, including EdUprising, NMACTE, and ACTE regional conferences, and was recently featured in ConnectED’s newsletter for experiential learning. Their systematic approach to curriculum development ensures sustainability beyond individual champions. “We’ve created individual example lesson plans with fully integrated projects as resources for our educators,” Hanks explains. “They can pull down a standard and see an example with integrations for media or engineering. One of the issues we saw in other areas was pockets of success driven by individual people. Our goal is global success with a sustainable system so no matter who comes and goes, students will have access to quality resources.” Current priorities include building a central career tech center to provide more specialized opportunities and refining their curriculum integration.“We’re now 13 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 05 GALLUP-MCKINLEY COUNTY SCHOOLS
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