BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
National and state teachers’ unions have been saying for months that people are leaving the profession, resulting in thousands of vacancies across Florida that school districts have been hard at work trying to fill.
Positions are open for support staff and bus drivers as well.
The Florida Education Association reported earlier this year there were more than 9,500 instructional and noninstructional positions open in Florida schools.
These jobs involve more educating students. School employees take care of children, help raise them and meet their needs. It is a stressful job, and easy to feel underpaid and underappreciated. Despite attempts to raise minimum teacher pay, in Florida, compensation still trails behind the national average.
Complaints about testing and standards persist, and classrooms have also become a battleground in the culture wars. Fewer young people are interested in entering the profession at all.
“Those who do become teachers are leaving the profession sooner,” according to the FEA report. “Even before the Covid pandemic, 40 percent of Florida’s new teachers left the classroom within their first five years in the profession, state records show. This is 15 to 20 percent above the national average, depending on the year.”
As of Monday, Bradford schools had 45 vacant positions advertised. Twenty-two were instructional positions, and there were five substitute positions. Twelve support positions were open for paraprofessionals, food service workers, etc. Three positions were vacant in transportation.
Human Resources Director Aimee Ferguson said some of the positions had been awarded and were in the preemployment process. The positions remain open until that process is complete.
“Other positions we are advertising but may not be filling immediately until student enrollment is solidified,” Ferguson said.
“We have received a steady but slow stream of applications. This year we have advertised through Skyward online, Facebook, job fairs, a web-based employment site, Career Source, and by contacting colleges throughout the state,” she said
Of the 38 positions posted in Union County, 22 were instructional, three were maintenance, two were transportations and four were aides. The district was also looking for a dean.
In Clay County, hundreds of positions are posted, and around 90 of them are for teachers. Only six teaching positions were vacant in Keystone Heights schools, however.
FEA’s solution involves raising pay to meet the national average, hiring and developing new teachers, and awarding longer contracts to experienced and well performing teachers.
Florida Department of Education reports these are the top teacher shortage areas:
English
Exceptional Student Education
Science—General
Reading
English for Speakers of Other Languages
Math
Science—Physical
“The shortage areas above represent certification areas where substantial proportions of teachers who are not certified in the appropriate field are being hired to teach such courses, where significant vacancies exist and where postsecondary institutions do not produce enough graduates to meet the needs of Florida’s K-12 student population,” according to FDOE’s report.
