Teacher morale in Massachusetts is among the lowest in the country, but could be improved by adding more support staff, offering greater flexibility around working hours, or higher pay, according to a group of educators and administrators at a panel hosted by The Boston Globe on Thursday.

A survey from Education Week, an education news outlet and co-sponsor of Thursday’s event, found that teacher morale in Massachusetts for the 2024-2025 school year was negative 10, on an index from negative 100 to positive 100. That’s below the national average of positive 18, and just four points ahead of New Hampshire, the state with the lowest teacher morale score, according to the survey.

“I was surprised by it, but at the same time, it feels very realistic,” said Serge Moniz, a teacher at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. “We have high student outcomes in Massachusetts. That comes at a cost, and unfortunately the cost is us.”

Panelists suggested reasons for the low score — from high cost of living to cold weather in Massachusetts — and offered ideas on boosting morale at the school and district level.

Demands on teachers’ time have been growing, especially since the pandemic, panelists said. In addition to managing classrooms, teachers are increasingly responsible for bus or hallway duty and juggling changes to their students’ lives.

“We’ve been in a place in our country where there are often national events or political climate or world pandemics that — in addition to the regular things that happen in the lives of students and families — create additional pressures for our students,” said Sujan Talukdar, principal of Underwood Elementary School in Newton.

Almi Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, said recovering from COVID and dealing with the threat of ICE is a particular challenge in her district.

During the pandemic, Chelsea Public Schools reinstated a mask mandate in January 2023, after previously lifting its mandate, and the district was “hit so hard,” Abeyta said. More recently, immigration crackdowns have partially contributed to a decline in enrollment for the district.

“The everyday presence of ICE — we feel it, I feel it, my parents feel it, my students feel it,” Abeyta said.

Teaching in one of the most expensive states in the country can be especially draining, panelists said.

Luisa Sparrow, a special education teacher at Oliver Hazard Perry School, said when she taught in Texas, her salary was lower than in Massachusetts, but her cost of living was “way, way” lower. To afford Massachusetts, and sending her two young children to day care, Sparrow lives far from her school, commuting almost three hours round-trip each day.

While teaching cannot offer hybrid work like many employers post-COVID, Sparrow said more flexibility to leave school when her students do, so she could pick up her own children from day care earlier, would be helpful.

“Historically, teaching was viewed as a very flexible job, and now, and I think this is a little bit of a shift since COVID … teaching is not very flexible,” Sparrow said. “My child is the last kid at day care pickup every single day.”

Moniz, who is also co-president of his school’s teachers union, said paid parental leave was a major part of bargaining for the last contract renegotiations and an important part of teacher morale.

“We have to be able to prioritize our own babies, too,” Moniz said.

Superintendent stability and having adequate support staff can also increase morale and attract young people to teaching, panelists said.

Sparrow, who has taught in Boston Public Schools for nine years, said she’s worked under four superintendents and four principals.

“Once you have enough time to sort of get your sea legs with maybe a certain direction, then something different comes along, and having to adjust to that can be tricky,” she said.

Para-professionals, who help with classroom management, special education support, or bilingual instruction, can alleviate some of the extra stress on teachers. Having adequate substitute coverage can also allow teachers to take time for mentorship or professional development opportunities, said Talukdar, the principal from Newton.

“I have an amazing paraprofessional,” Sparrow said. “I could not do my job without her.”

Abeyta said her district is working on a pipeline for paraprofessionals to become teachers, and teachers to become administrators, which helps to promote teacher retention.

“I think that is so important — investing in the people that are sitting in front of us,” she said.

Katie Muchnick can be reached at katie.muchnick@globe.com.

A 14-foot-long thresher shark died Tuesday after becoming stranded in shallow water off the coast of Massachusetts.

The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA), a nonprofit organization that responded to the scene, told Fox News Digital Wednesday that the shark was first spotted alive at Mayo Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the animal died just before NECWA arrived at the site.

“Yesterday morning, NECWA received numerous calls about a possibly live thresher shark that was stranded in shallow water off Mayo Beach, Wellfleet, MA,” the alliance said in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Our team jumped into action and rushed to the site to try and rescue this shark. Unfortunately the animal died just before the team arrived.”

Photos from the scene show the large-eyed, slender thresher lying on the shore with an extremely long, whip-like tail, measuring about half the length of its body. The shark appeared injured with visible track-like marks on its body. 

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NECWA noted that the animal was already in poor condition by the time their team arrived and that a necropsy of the animal had been conducted.

“The fish that died in Wellfleet was alive when first sighted but was not in great shape,” Marine Biologist and President of NECWA Krill Carson told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reached out to shark biologist John Chisholm for more information on the necropsy.

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The organization said strandings of thresher sharks are particularly common during the colder months along the shores of Cape Cod. Carson added that the majority of stranded threshers they encounter are male.

“Not unusual for thresher sharks to strand in New England in the fall as they are trying to navigate to warmer waters to the south,” the organization said in the Facebook post. “Like many marine animals, this shark took a wrong turn and ended up in Wellfleet’s inner harbor.”

After becoming stranded, thresher sharks are at high risk of dying because they cannot tolerate prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, Carson said. She noted that bay water temperatures at that time were roughly below 50 degrees and continued to drop.

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“A handful of threshers strand each season as they get trapped inside Cape Cod and are unable to continue their migration south,” Carson told Fox News Digital. “If they stay in our area too long, then they will become cold-stunned or cold-shocked and die.”

NECWA is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization. Contributions can be made at necwa.org.