Hundreds of teacher vacancies in Hillsborough County with school starting next week
TAMPA, Fla. - On Friday, Hillsborough County Public Schools announced it has 455 teacher vacancies with less than a week left before the first day of school.
The first day of class is Thursday, Aug. 10.
Interim Hillsborough Superintendent Van Ayres – who was appointed to the role June 20 – said Friday the number of open teacher spots was more than 1,000 at the beginning of June.
Hillsborough County Public Schools start in a few days.
"We're used to dealing with teacher vacancies in the last number of years. So as we look for this school year to get going, it's not going to be a major challenge for us to be in the position we're at right now," Ayres said.
READ: Florida teacher shortage one of the worst in the country as new school year starts
Part of the plan to fill those jobs is through initiatives, like the district’s resident educator program that includes recent college grads in the process of becoming teachers. Ayres said 150 educator spots will be filled thanks to that program. Long-term substitutes will also help fill the gaps.
On Thursday, a new state law banned teaching lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity. The American Psychological Association called this content fundamental to the AP Psychology course.
Students are being switched to different psychology courses.
HCPS announced Friday evening that the 1,826 students enrolled in the 67 AP Psych classes across 19 high schools will be transitioned to AICE Psych instead. The district planned to send out communication of this change to parents Friday night.
Ayres was asked if he thinks the state’s education laws make it harder to recruit teachers.
"I haven't seen that," Ayres said. "I think that the teacher vacancy is really across the nation."
Bus drivers will be forced to work more amid shortage.
The vacancies also extend to bus drivers. 203 empty spots still need to be filled, according to Ayres. That number used to be 300.
"What happens now is a lot of our bus drivers basically work more. So our bus drivers that are there basically will do double runs. So they'll finish one run, get done, and go for another run, so it creates a lot of stress on our current drivers that we have," Ayres said. "I would tell our parents to expect on the first day of school, like any other year, there could be delays. So just bear with us as we get this school year kicked off."