Teacher Andrea Gonzales sipped tea from an apple-adorned mug a student gave her, and mixed granola into a bowl of yogurt. It was 5:35 a.m. on a recent school day. Except for the kitchen, the home she and her fiancé share with four housemates was dark. In the distance, a rooster crowed.
Gonzales wouldn’t greet her first-graders until 7:55, but she stepped out under an inky sky and left in her Toyota Prius at 6 o’clock sharp. The drive to her public school on the Monterey Peninsula often takes an hour or more in traffic. It is a slog she has dealt with for years, while searching in vain for reasonably priced housing near work.
“We have talked as a family about honestly not even just leaving the district but leaving the state, just because it’s so expensive,” said Gonzales, 30 years old.