The Hayden School District was in dire straits in 2024 regarding staffing for the upcoming school year. The district was dealing with retirements, along with employees moving to other districts, states and jobs.

Specifically, the district was looking at 21 full- and part-time openings, not to mention needed substitutes and bus drivers.

Superintendent Eric Owen and the district school board president, Ryan Wattles, penned a letter to the community, asking for help on two counts: Identify and encourage friends and employees with good potential as teachers to pursue that dream; and offer housing assistance like spare rooms a new teacher could rent.

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“We recruited vigorously at job fairs around the state, jobs listed by Colorado Association of Superintendents, plus ads in local outlets,” said Owen. There has been a national shortage in young adults seeking teaching degrees, he added. Combined with a small Hayden inventory of affordable housing — for rent or sale — Hayden struggled to find enough teachers.

By mid-July, the district mostly had a full slate of staff, save for five remaining spots in its teacher lineup.

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“We were getting nervous,” Owen said. But then the district interviewed a teacher from the far side of the Pacific — a Filipino that “wowed” district representatives. That was English teacher Ian Paul Campos.

A recruiting agency identified four more candidates — three Filipinos and one from Thailand — with years of experience and a solid command of English, not to mention a few graduate degrees.

The decision was made to offer them jobs in Hayden, but there were bureaucratic complexities to resolve. The five candidates submitted resumes, cover letters and a copy of the Foreign Credential Evaluation of their higher education transcripts. They also had to process their visas through a J-1 visa program, also known as the Exchange Visitor program, which allows international visitors to work and/or study in the United States.

Paperwork caused delays until October, said Owen, when the five teachers traveled to Glenwood Springs to get their Social Security cards — documents essential to set up bank accounts, rent a a townhouse and apply for a teaching license with the Colorado Department of Education. Once all the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed, the five teachers moved into a townhouse on the east side of town.

“So far we’re very pleased with how they’re doing,” Owen said. He added that if things work out, its anticipated the five will teach for three years and then return home. It is possible to apply for an additional one or two years.

As for their living situation, “It is a lot like the situation I had back home with a wife and three daughters,” said Campos, an English language arts teacher at the high school level.

The five teachers walk back and forth between their rented townhouse and the school complex. Philippine and Southeast Asia weather is warm, hot and humid. They were excited to learn that Northwest Colorado has winter snows and cold weather, but also wary.

“We made sure to buy the coats and hats we’d need,” said Abigail Ann Beltran-Arabejo, a middle school English teacher. Although they haven’t been threatened by hypothermia, they certainly have experienced uncomfortable below-zero cold. “I don’t like it,” she added.

Campos said he was shocked by his early encounters with snow and cold, but “I am beginning to enjoy them as new experiences.”

Joy Sumugot, a special education teacher, had previously experienced snow and cold on a trip to Japan. “I thought Japan was cold, but Colorado is freezing,” she said. She added, however, that she did enjoy the beauty of a white Christmas.

Fourth-grade teacher Carlyn Joy  B. Remolador-Epe said she finds snowy fields and mountains beautiful, so she’s been taking lots of photographs to share with family and friends back home. “I am getting acclimated to the cold, but I also got used to intense heat and humidity,” she added.

“The first time I saw big snowflakes, I had to take pictures of them,” said Janette I. Vital, intervention teacher for kindergarten through fifth grade. Still, she appreciates being able to bundle up for those walks to school. And everyone is looking forward to the changing of the seasons in the months ahead.

There is a marked difference between American and Filipino students. Back home, teachers gave instructions and students followed those instructions, said the teachers.

In Hayden, students question about tasks and assignments, the teachers said.

“I love the ideas they bring up,” said Beltran-Arabejo, “but I’d like to see some sort of boundaries for all the questions.”

Campos said teachers in the Philippines are highly respected by students. He’s taken the questions as a clue he needs greater variety in assignments. 

Beltran-Arabejo said that in the Philippines, school principals are like gods, with teachers working to support them and make them happy. “In Hayden, the principals support the teachers, to a degree I have never seen before,” she said, adding that administrators have taken the new teachers on shopping trips for food and meals at restaurants. 

Remolador-Epe said she is impressed by the beautiful buildings and homes in the valley, but it’s the people who have made all the difference. “For me,” she said, “the big surprise is the warmth of people, of the entire community.”