It's no secret there is a desperate need for teachers around the country and in the area.
Area schools including Rhinelander are looking to combat that shortage.
According to the Wisconsin DPI, from 2021-2022, nearly 40% of first year teachers either leave the profession or the state after just six years.
Rhinelander has taken action to get a head start on future educators.
The school district adopting 'Educators Rising' program to give their students a head start on potentially taking up the profession of teaching or even more.
The program gives high schoolers who are interested in education hands-on experience with the job even before college.
"It's that extra layer of getting that experience in high school versus waiting all the way till their junior or senior year (of college) of putting together a lesson for a class and realizing, 'oh yeah, actually I don't want to do teaching. This is not where I want to be," said Melissa Hasselberger a teacher at Rhinelander and also an advisor for Educators Rising.
The program started with eight students in 2022, and has grown to 50 current members.
The school district also offering more than just a teaching program.
"Maybe it's not even teaching. Maybe they want to do something different like be an athletic director, or principal, so it opens up the door to a lot of different types of possibilities in the realm of education," said Hasselberger.
Rhinelander wants to give their students the full experience and the tools to become successful inside a classroom.
"Experiences in school, out of school, that gets kids working with families and then they find, 'hey this is a really cool,'" said Meghan Retallick, another teacher and Educators Rising advisor.
That development has paid dividends for the school and ideally the community.
"We've grown to last year where there were 18 Rhinelander seniors that graduated out declaring education, and that's just huge growth," said Retallick.
Call it trickle-down-teachonomics as the school hopes students will finish their college education and come full-circle to teach where it all began.
The school says that students who graduate college in education have a guaranteed interview with the school district if there's an opening at that time.
