If you follow city politics, you're aware of the massive tug-of-war that took place this spring.

Yank, went Mayor Ted Gatsas, demanding concessions from city workers. Dig in, went the city teachers union, insisting it had a contract and wasn't going to budge.

In that tug of war, Andrew Croteau was the rope.

Actually, he was just a strand in that rope, one of 143 teachers clinging to their jobs in uncertain economic times. After some compromise and some extra money was found, between 50 and 60 teachers will see their jobs saved, school officials estimate.

Still, 105 jobs were lost. (The math doesn't add up neatly because of retirements, discharges and unfilled vacancies.) In all likelihood, one of those lost jobs is Croteau's.

“It was my first job (after college), and my first pink slip,” said Croteau, who was hired a year ago to teach eighth-grade mathematics at Hillside Middle School.

To many, the idea of teaching algebraic functions, multi-step equations and the x-y axis to early teens amounts to certifiable insanity. To Croteau, it is a calling that approaches that of religious vocation.

As a student at Beech Street School, he saw the math grades of his fellow students improve after he helped them with their homework. He continued doing so at Southside Middle School and Memorial High Scool.

In middle school, he realized that teaching math was all he wanted to do.

“There's nothing better than when you see a student who's struggling, you help them out, and that light bulb goes off,” he said recently.

According to two experts — my son, and his buddy, both June graduates of Hillside — Croteau was cool.

“I can't say that I liked math this year, but I grasped it better,” Luke Hayward said. “I liked the class, if not the subject.”

“He didn't make it hard. It was relatively easy,” said Nick Ragone.

Croteau is only 10 years older than the students he taught. They laughed about television shows, sports, and his golf game.

One day, Croteau wore a sweater vest. It became his signature fashion statement, and he ended up with a drawer of 19 of them.

When the boys learned his middle name – Theodore – they shortened it to Thor, giving him superhero status. During the school's award cermony recently, they shouted out “Thor” when math teachers were singled out.

“It kind of sucks,” Ragone said about Croteau's layoff. “He didn't get much of a chance.”

Not much of a salary, either. As a first-year teacher, Croteau earned $33,900 a year.

Stack that up against his college loan payment of $650 a month and that doesn't leave much. He lives with his parents — his father is a city highway worker, his mother worked as a receptionist until she hurt herself — in their home at 130 Union St.

He doesn't own a car; he used his mother's to get to work. He held a part-time tutoring job to make ends meet.

A slight possibility exists that a position could open up, or that a half-dozen applications he's sent out could get noticed. But as the summer passes by, it's becoming more likely that Croteau won't be switching on light bulbs in kids' heads this coming school year.

“It's a game, and it really shouldn't be. These are people's jobs here,” he said.

He notes that a new police station is being built, and he questions the city's priorities. He understands why the union held firm.

“There has to be a line. You can't have one group giving up all this and the other group giving up nothing,” he said.

But ask him about concessions, and he grows quiet. At first, he begs off, saying he didn't pay that much attention. But would he have swallowed concessions to keep his job? He shrugs, nods his head and whispers, “Whatever it takes to get my job back.”

“I'm always sorry to see anybody lose a job,” said Ben Dick, president of the Manchester Education Association.

He said the membership overwhelmingly voted to reject concessions.

The sides weren't that clear-cut, Dick said. Some teachers facing layoffs voted against concessions; some veteran teachers voted for them.

If there is a bright spot for Croteau, math and science teachers will have a better chance at finding employment than English and social studies teachers, Dick said.

Private industry favors such teachers, too.

Croteau doesn't want to get a job outside teaching.

“This,” he said, “is my calling. This is what I want to do.”

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Mark Hayward may be reached at mhayward@unionleader.com.