The final school bell last month just marked the end of one shift and the start of another for some Bend-La Pine teachers.

During the summer, moonlighting teachers take on seasonal gigs for a variety of reasons: to support their families as single parents, to earn money for a child’s college fund or squirrel away some cash for vacations.

Many choose summer jobs that are different from what they do the rest of the year. They work concession stands, caddy for golfers, test bullets and paint houses.

For many Bend-La Pine teachers, it’s baseball — specifically Elks baseball — that provides a second income. The majority of people staffing Elks games are teachers or educational assistants from Bend-La Pine Schools.

At Vince Genna Stadium, Jodi Sunitsch, a physical education teacher for 11 years at Ensworth Elementary, was slinging beers at the far north end of the stadium on a Tuesday evening. Sunitsch, who’s been with the school district 19 years, widened her eyes as fellow Elks staffer Karen Soto, a retired teacher, mentioned a special challenge to this season: Because the district let out later this year to make up for so many snow days, there were nine Elks games before school was finished.

“They were working day and night,” Soto said of the teachers.

As Kaleo Renstrom turned hot dogs on the grill, she nodded in agreement. Renstrom, P.E. teacher at Juniper Elementary, has been teaching for 33 years. For many years she also worked summers at the stadium but took a break to have two knee surgeries. So what brought her back?

“The friends!” Renstrom said. “The people.”

If you’re going to take a summer job, why not do it side by side with people who also work hard and have a good time doing it — that’s the idea for teachers at Vince Genna Stadium, Renstrom said. Soto, who also taught P.E. in her last years at Lava Ridge Elementary, enjoys the people, too.

But in the beginning, Soto’s need for a summer job was more urgent than that.

“I was newly divorced and needed the money,” Soto said.

Now the summer cash pads her retirement benefits.

For Kale Zahniser, serving brews in a different part of the stadium at the beer counter, the paychecks are all for family trips.

“Any money I make goes towards vacations,” Zahniser said, in between taking orders, pouring pints and making change. “Five years ago it took us to Costa Rica.”

That trip took a few seasons of extra paychecks, Zahniser said. Most years, the vacations are with family in California, Texas or Florida, she said.

The family-like atmosphere of Bend-La Pine teachers being behind the scenes at Elks games extends to family by blood. Several of the teens on staff at the Elks are the children of teachers. On Tuesday, Zahniser’s 15-year-old son was directing traffic outside the stadium. It’s his first season.

Inside the concession stand, even more teachers took turns behind the counter. But despite the rush, the teachers remained polite as they shouted out orders:

“Two cheeseburgers, please!”

“Garlic Parmesan fries, please!”

Under the pressure of lines 10 people long and the noise of a live band, Lisa Longbotham, a teacher at Rosland Elementary in La Pine, switched deftly between taking payments, passing cups of pop and cracking beers open.

With all the extra hours teachers often put in during the school year, it might seem they look forward to a well deserved break. But for Rusty Clemons, who taught math and P.E. at Bend High School until he retired last month, taking a summer job has scratched an itch.

“I’m just used to 12- and 14-hour days,” said Clemons, who also coached football and golf.

Clemons is a golf caddie for High Desert Loopers, which services a number of local courses.

“The flexibility is fantastic with the caddie job,” Clemons said. “The golfing privileges are a fringe benefit.”

If the courses where he caddies aren’t full, Clemons can generally golf on Monday and Tuesday evenings for free, including at Tetherow.

“It is complete fun; it’s a lot of hustle,” Clemons said of his golf gig. “Caddiying is more than just telling people specifics about a hole or yardage or reading a putt line on a green. It’s psychological, too. You have to help them right the ship.”

In that way the job is similar to teaching and coaching — he’s always helping golfers look ahead to their next steps. And just like seeing a student succeed, seeing people sink a shot is satisfying because he helped get them there, Clemons said.

For Clemons, the caddie pay is just extra money to play with. That’s what it is for Ian Amman, too, an English teacher at Bend High. But it wasn’t always. Amman, in his third summer in the golf course maintenance department at Pronghorn Resort, said that first summer he really needed the gig.

When he first started teaching at Bend High, it was only for one semester, so the maintenance job at Pronghorn rounded out his annual pay. But now, he puts the Pronghorn paycheck toward traveling, and especially camping trips during the summer.

Amman also gets to play rounds for free during slower times.

“That’s right in my budget,” Amman said, adding he enjoys taking out fellow teachers who otherwise might not be able to afford to play at Pronghorn.

An individual would likely spend $300-400 for one round at that resort, he said.

He also looks forward to working with his fellow maintenance staffers, who Amman said are from a range of age groups and are a mix of year-round and seasonal workers.

“It’s fun to see each other in the different seasons of life that we’re all there,” Amman said.

Amman, who also coaches football at Bend High, said it’s fun to get in the golf mindset, where going harder doesn’t mean doing better.

“In golf you have to slow down,” he said.

That kind of slowed down pace on the course, whether he’s playing or working, is perfect to recharge over summer months. And even though working maintenance means waking up earlier than he does during the school year, it’s nice to be done with work by the afternoon. Because although afternoons may be when class lets out during the school year, a teacher’s work is really never done.

“It’s a job that you honestly could almost spend every waking hour doing,” Amman said of teaching.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, kfisicaro@bendbulletin.com