Reflecting statewide data, school districts across Northwest Florida began the 2023-24 school year with a decline in teacher vacancies. There’s still a teacher shortage, but the actual number has fluctuated. Now about two weeks in, districts are beginning to get a more accurate picture of their instructional needs.
Support Local Stories. Donate Here.
“A week before school actually started, we were right roughly at about 47 (to) 49 vacancies,” said Melia Adams, director of human resources for Escambia County Public Schools.
That’s a reduction of almost 40% from the 77 teacher vacancies reported in Escambia during the same period last year.
But, Adams explains, it’s a bit of a moving target at the beginning of the year, as families move into new school zones, as parental choice is more utilized, and some of those hired opt out. Just a few days into the school year, the teacher shortage in Escambia rose from 49 to 59.
RELATED: DeSantis quickly signs voucher expansion
“We're actually in what we call our eight-day count, meaning we're actually looking at the first eight days of school, and then we look at where our enrollment increases are and where our enrollment declines are. And so some of our staffing numbers may shift,” she said.
At the end of this review, the district may be able to reduce the number of open teaching positions. But, for now, Escambia County Public Schools still has a long list of instructional vacancies, some of which are traditionally difficult to fill.
“Our greatest need is always at, of course, the elementary level and the ESE level, the exceptional student education level," said Adams. "Those are areas that we tend to have a constant need for. And of course, once again, that shifts with the population of students. I was a secondary teacher, so I taught at the middle school level and I've been an administrator at both middle and high school. And so you look at for those areas at the secondary level, you're looking at your math and your science teachers.”
That need is also evident in Santa Rosa County schools, said B.J. Price, human resources director for the Santa Rosa County School District.
“I think on the instructional side, we're looking typically at our teachers who serve in our ESE classrooms, our Exceptional Student Education classrooms,” he said. “And some at the secondary level, I would say typically, ELA, English Language Arts is a harder spot to fill for us, and so that's probably our biggest area of need.”
But, at the time of our interview about a week into the school year, Price said the district was in “a pretty good place.” One of the fastest-growing districts in the state, Santa Rosa reported just 15 teaching vacancies, down from 18 on the first day of classes.
That relatively low number in Santa Rosa — combined with openings in Escambia Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay counties — added up to 104 fewer first-day teacher vacancies in those counties in 2023, a decrease of 38% from last year.
Overall, the state Department of Educationreported nearly 4,800 (4,776) teacher vacancies to begin the school year, an 8% decline. But the state number was vastly different from the Florida Education Association’s tally of nearly 7,000 (6,920 as of Aug. 7) a few days earlier.
The teacher’s union is blaming the shortage, in part, on state policies that restrict what can be taught in Florida classrooms.
Price conceded that he couldn’t speak directly to the reason for the shortage or the count discrepancy. But with district vacancy rates changing on a daily basis at the start of the school year, he suggested those different figures could just be a matter of timing.
“Sometimes there's a lag in data,” he stated. “If they were looking at each district's job postings page, and they were just going through and doing the simple math of counting the number of vacancies that are posted, sometimes there's a lag in when positions are filled and when those positions come off of the jobs postings page. So it could be something as simple as that.”
Further east, Marcus Chambers, superintendent of the Okaloosa County School District, started off the school year with a positive outlook.
“Well, I say here in Okaloosa, the school year has started off fantastically,” he said. “Our students and teachers and staff are excited to be back, so that's always a great thing.”
As with neighboring school districts, Chambers says Okaloosa is feeling the crunch of the ongoing teacher shortage, but faring better than a year ago when he reported about 75 vacancies at the beginning of the year.
Opening 2023-24, the district had 53 teacher vacancies, most of them at the elementary level.
“We currently have teachers that are being on-boarded right now that should be hired in the next several days as well," said Chambers. "So we're ahead of schedule for last year. Our principals have done a great job with their staff in terms of making the necessary adjustments to make sure that our kids are taken care of in the interim until a teacher is hired.”
Although the FEA also attributes low pay for the teacher vacancies in Florida, Chambers says the state is providing more money for bonuses and salary increases. Okaloosa’s salary for new teachers is just over $49,000 and the new state minimum of $47,500 is offered in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Credit for the decline in the number of vacancies is also being given to new Florida laws to assist in the recruitment and retention of teachers and to make it easier to receive teaching certificates in the state.
“What's interesting is, if you go back ten years ago and you hire 178 teachers, almost all of them had degrees in education. And that's kind of changing not only in Okaloosa, but the state of Florida, the nation,” said Chambers, recalling one snippet in time last year, where over 90% of new teachers hired were career changers. The number was about half (83 out of 178) this year. “So now you have folks who have a degree, not necessarily in education, and they want to be teachers. So there's pathways for these folks to be able to do that.”
With Eglin Air Force Base and several other installations in Okaloosa County, the superintendent is particularly excited about pathway programs for retired military and first responders.
“And we've hired several individuals in those two categories," he added. "So we're happy to be able to partner, so to speak, with the military first responders and get good, solid people in our classrooms, working with our students."
The state’s new Teacher Apprenticeship Program (HB 1035) is also helping, with those in the program working as long-term substitutes as they complete requirements for their teaching certificates.
