CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Clay County students are just over three weeks away from heading back to school and on Wednesday, school district officials are hoping to fill open teaching positions.
The Clay County District Schools job fair is at Fleming Island High School from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. It will be held at 2233 Village Square Parkway in Fleming Island, as the superintendent says it will be in the teacher training center.
Clay County District Schools Superintendent David Broskie says the district has 80 open teacher positions, but they're hoping to hire about 50 people Wednesday. He says they have a total of almost 3,000 teachers. Teachers return for the school year in two weeks.
The county is also hiring other positions such as bus drivers, school nurses and classroom assistants. Broskie says they have 14 bus routes that need drivers, although 11 people are prepared to fill in on the first day of school if needed.
Clay County is in a better position than some other Florida counties in past school years. The Florida Education Association states Florida's teacher shortage has only gotten worse over the years, with more than 10,000 teacher and support staff vacancies at the start of last school year.
The Florida Department of Education states last year about 20 percent of Florida's teachers in Exceptional Student Education and almost 10 percent of Florida's English teachers were not certified in the appropriate field.
Over the years, Clay County has had to start hiring more teachers because they're adding more schools as more families move to the area. The U.S. Census Bureau data shows about 8,000 people moved to Clay County between 2020 and 2022.
Wednesday is the ribbon-cutting for Clay County's 43rd school, according to Broskie. That school is Spring Park Elementary School in Green Cove Springs. Broskie says the district is planning to have up to four new schools open within the next seven years as the county's population grows.
"With First Coast Expressway coming right through Clay County, we're going to see an increase of approximately 10,000 students over the next 10 years," Broskie said. "That's about a quarter of our population so that's a significant increase."
According to the school district, hiring supervisors will be ready to extend on-site conditional offers at the job fair.