Teachers are vital to a student’s academic success, but Arizona is facing one of the worst teacher shortages nationwide.

According to the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, 25 percent of teaching positions were unfilled at the beginning of last school year.

Teachers said low salaries were the main reason why teachers leave their jobs, but they also said connection was crucial to feeling good in the profession.

“A lot of time you feel isolated, you never have enough time to collaborate,” said Teresa Hill, the CEO of local nonprofit Tucson Values Teachers at a fundraising event last week. “They’re people people, they want to talk to people, they want to share ideas,” Hill added.

Hill is part of a team of current and former teachers developing a solution to this crisis of connection. A new app called Lumia will provide a private social media networking platform where southern Arizona teachers can ask each other for advice and mentorship.

“We can control you feeling good in this position,” said Amee Legarra, who teaches sixth-grade math and is helping to develop the app. “That’s why I’m so excited for Lumia because I think that’s the number one thing it’s going to provide.”

Tucson Values Teachers will be testing the app starting this school year in the Sahuarita and Flowing Wells school districts. The organization is fundraising to support the app’s development and hopes to bring it to more school districts later this year. To donate or find more information, go to TucsonValuesTeachers.org.

Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corps member covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.