As any staff member at Cascade High School will tell you, teachers do not make that much money. In order to make a couple of extra bucks, they can teach more class periods, advise a club, or coach a sports team. Many teachers at CHS use these methods. There are a number of teachers who employ other methods of earning, including being more involved with their community and hobbies.
One of Mr. Betz’s hobbies is fishing. He has spent years spending his summers out at sea catching salmon and tuna. “I guess calling it a business is what it would have been three years ago,” recalled Betz. He continued: “So, I was [completing] my master’s in teaching program, that summer I went fishing. As soon as I got back, I started teaching.”
Students find Betz’s side hustle to be intriguing and ask him questions about the business. To become prepared for the season of fishing during the summer, Mr. Betz goes through a long checklist before school gets out. “It’s just a lot of organizing things before the summer, shipping things up, making sure you have a crew, and that they are all prepared and have everything,” said Betz, who continued: “Then it’s just kind of like a mad dash during the summer. School ends and literally a day or two after I’m heading up to Alaska and then it’s a mad dash getting the boat ready, jumping out, getting on the water, making sure the nets are all ready for fishing.” When he comes back from fishing throughout the summer, Betz brings home hundreds of pounds of salmon and tuna that he eats, and sells to other staff members, throughout the school year. If a student wanders into Betz’s classroom during lunch, they will have a good chance of finding Mr. Betz eating tuna out of a Ziploc.
Mrs. Dillon not only teaches the whole of the art curriculum at CHS, but she has also been selling her artwork on the side since before she even became a teacher. Dillon is one of the more well-known artists that local businesses hire to decorate their buildings. She has loved creating art since her middle school years: “[In] sixth grade, I had a mandatory art class, [in which] there was the bottle shading project, and it was drawing a bottle as realistic as you could. It turned out good and I loved the idea of being able to really focus on something and draw it. From there on, I just started drawing on my own a lot and would draw, mostly people from magazines. [I] just got better and better.” To have an organized system to produce her art, Mrs. Dillon “created a website and then worked with different businesses that need art. So, like dental offices, and restaurants and Sleeping Lady, or resorts that have needs for art. Then I’ll work with them to create something that they want in their business,” she explained.
Principal Joya flips and rents out houses in order to have more income. He builds parts of the houses himself during the summer break. “It is very fun. I do most of the work sheetrock, plumbing, and electrical. We [the Joya family] buy and flip [the houses]. [Some] we rent [out] and some we sell,” said Joya. Even with playing the leading role at Cascade High School, Joya works extra hard to put in the work that goes into taking care of multiple properties. “[It’s a] full time job [and] I do it throughout the year and on the weekends,” he said and then continued: “It is a lot of work. We have a development, and a house [that] we are [living] in [and remodeling] right now and then [we are] going to sell it. The development hasn’t started yet, but we are going to start it this summer, remodeling it.”
Ms. Robison also rents out a house to make additional income. Robison stated that: “My main job is teaching English and producing the yearbook is kind of like coaching. It’s a little bit extra than that and then I am a landlord and then I also teach yoga now. So, [I have] four jobs.” Before she moved over the mountains, Robison studied and taught herself about how to become a landlord: “Quite of few different cousins [of mine] work in finance and real estate and they just kind of advised me with how to make finance work and how to manage real estate. It’s like an investment, a way to diversify. I guess I have also come up with [the idea] by reading different books and information about how to build wealth and be financially secure.” Because Robison’s house is located on the west side of the mountains, it requires different kinds of attention, like cleaning moss off the driveway and removing tree debris from the gutters, to keep it in good condition. Being a landlord involves many smaller tasks, like replacing or fixing broken appliances when needed. Other than that, Robison believes that being a landlord is comparatively easy: “Then I just collect rent. When my tenants don’t pay rent on time and then I have to take care of making sure that they feel motivated to do so. When someone moves out, it’s a lot of work too. You have to clean the house. A lot of [the] times, you have to repaint, you’ll replace the carpeting, and just clean up anything that they left behind. It’s a lot of work depending on [the tenant]. I have had good tenants, but if a tenant is bad, it can be a lot of work to clean up after they leave.” Robison is also a licensed yoga instructor and has recently taken a teaching job at Alpine Hot Yoga in Leavenworth. “I’ve taught before at studios in other cities,” said Robison who continued: “I’ve always kind of liked yoga because in high school, I stretched. Then in college, I actually took a yoga class. I thought that was kind of cool. I never really found it challenging enough of a workout for me. So, then after college, I did a lot of running and more competitive sports and started to practice hot yoga. It kind of turned into one of my main workout methods because I learned how to make it a workout for myself.” When her youngest sister invited her to a yoga teacher training, however, she realized it was more targeted towards professionals in the medical field: “There were a lot of people there who were physical therapists, doctors, or nurses. I don’t have any background in that. I learned a ton, and then I came back. I was like ‘Okay, I paid a lot for that education, I should probably make some money off of it.’ So, I just got a job, and I loved it.” When she moved to Leavenworth, Robison wanted to focus on settling in with just teaching English before she thought about teaching yoga on the side. But after years of not teaching yoga, she is excited to start practicing again and being able to be in a studio. Alpine Hot Yoga, states Robison: “is a really cool space that makes yoga accessible for the community in general. I think that yoga can be something that’s really helpful for both physical and mental well-being. It’s been really helpful to me both physically and mentally and I’m happy to pass the benefits I have gotten from it onto other people. And I also just really love practicing yoga regularly; I think teaching [yoga] motivates me to practice more and to be more regimental with my yoga routine.”
Most teachers at CHS are following their passion to educate. That doesn't mean, however, that there is not time for them to engage their talent in other endeavors. Ms. Dillon is a prime example by extending her art beyond the four walls of the school. Mr. Betz takes to the sea; Ms. Robison gets her yoga on with others. She and Joya also dabble in real estate. If these side hustles also happen to supplement their notoriously low teacher salaries, all the better!
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