When the Brandywine Community Schools Board of Education approved the layoff of eight teachers within the district — a result of cuts in state funding — Stacey Recker’s name was on the list.

Recker has been featured in the Star in a special series following her experience in the first year of her dream job, as a first grade teacher at Merritt Elementary School.

For first-year teachers, layoffs and pink slips can be a possibility. For Recker, who some might consider a symbol of the quality teachers districts everywhere are trying to hold on to, that reality has in no way dented her passion for teaching.

“I knew that going into it,” she said of the possibility of being laid off. “So I wasn’t shocked. Although I would lie to say I’m not bummed.”

Since the first visit by the Star in September, Recker said she can see significant progress with her students in reading, writing and math.

“The kids are really good,” she said. “Everyone is reading which is just phenomenal and they’re excited.”

Getting her students to build on their reading skills was one of Recker’s main goals at the beginning of the year, but she hardly takes all the credit. She praises parental involvement and adds the parents have only made her experience in the district better.

“The parents have definitely shown me the great part of Niles,” she said.

And when it comes to the children’s success, “really only a small portion of it is me,” Recker added.

Still, seeing her students develop and build on their skills, growing through the learning process is something that comes across in Recker’s expression. She beams with pride when discussing their achievements in the various skills the students have tackled in class this year.

First grade is big, she said, because it is a critical time of education, understanding basic and vital concepts.

“Seeing the progress the kids are making is exciting,” she said. “I’m just so proud of them… It’s just exciting to see them and see that confidence in them… That’s my goal, to see them get independent with their learning.

“We teach a lot of the little stuff that when they get older, becomes second nature,” she said.

It’s that culmination of progress that can reaffirm the hopes of a first-year teacher and as Recker nears the end of that first year, she said she feels more confident and comfortable with her students.

“I know what they need and how to help them,” she said. And while teaching the concepts is important, she added, “I also like being there to give them the support.”

When Supt. John Jarpe came to talk to Recker recently about the strains budget cuts were putting on the district’s finances, she said she was prepared.

Being laid off as a first-year teacher, she said, is part of the “unique profession,” and she’s been keeping herself informed of the developments, or sometimes lack thereof, in regard to the state’s funding for education.

“I anticipated (it), being a first-year teacher,” she said. “I don’t take anything personal about it … I was grateful enough to have a job.”

Keeping one eye on the news, she said she knew things could get worse in regard to funding for education.

Recker also became familiar with the issues through research she did starting back in college at Central Michigan University.

“It’s not a negative evaluation.,” she said.

And that fact seems to keep Recker’s confidence and self-assurance intact. Though she is not sure what the next year will bring, she shows no abundance of worry.

She’d love to come back to Merritt, which, she said, “has a special atmosphere … almost like a family.” And she’d love to stay in the area or at the very least, in the state.

For first-year teachers like Recker, this is the reality. Jobs aren’t necessarily guaranteed despite the quality of teaching being done in the classroom, and for teachers, it means searching available positions over the summer, possibly finding another way to keep teaching and doing what’s best for one’s own family.

Some teachers secure substitute spots for themselves, teaching periodically through the week. Others might try to find another job to supplement until something permanent opens up, Recker said.

And another reality of the changing culture of education comes up in conversation with Recker. As budgets get tighter and districts are forced to utilize their teachers to the best of their ability, a new demand, one for diversification seems to be emerging in the world of teaching. Additional certifications, which allow  teachers to teach a wide realm of curriculum, can make educators more marketable.

“(It seems) in the past year, even maybe two years, there has been a surplus in teachers … and so little demand that you have to start marketing yourself,” Recker said. “When there’s 300 people applying for one spot, I think you kind of have to.”

The end of her year may be laced with a degree of uncertainty, but Recker said she isn’t focusing on the layoff.

And as for her plans for the future?

“I kind of feel like I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” she said.