MOORPARK : 2 Teachers Share a 1st-Grade Class

Moorpark first-grade student Brian Murphy said the only problem with having two teachers is that he sometimes confuses their names.

“Sometimes I call Mrs. Hartnett Mrs. Russell,” said Brian, 7.

“One’s nicer,” he said. But “I keep on forgetting” which one.

Brian is one of 29 students in the Peach Hill Elementary School class where teachers Yvonne Russell and Carol Hartnett split the classroom duties, the only shared teaching position in the Moorpark Unified School District.

To give each of them more time at home with her own young children, the teachers began the arrangement in fall 1991, with Russell teaching language arts in the mornings and Hartnett giving math instruction in the afternoons.

School officials recently agreed with the local teachers union to expand the program pioneered by Russell and Hartnett, allowing seven shared positions districtwide beginning in the next school year.

Other Ventura County school districts that allow teachers to job-share include Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Elementary School District and the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said Yvonne Davis, personnel director for Moorpark schools.

Both Russell, 31, and Hartnett, 34, were full-time teachers until they had children of their own a few years ago.

Sharing teaching duties enables them to be better teachers and better parents, Hartnett said.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” she said.

Because they work shorter hours, Hartnett and Russell said they have more energy to devote to their class.

And they estimate they each spend an average of seven hours per school day in preparation and instruction, although they receive only partial salaries and benefits.

“The district gets a lot” for its money, Russell said.