JACKSONVILLE, Fla — With less than three weeks before kids head back to school in Duval County, the district is still working to fill 470 hundred teacher vacancies.
Duval isn't alone with vacancies, several counties are higher than usual at the start of the school year:
- Clay County - 48 teachers
- St. Johns - 41
- Nassau - 29
- Putnam - 24
"We have a lot of questions to ask when orientation comes," said Shameka Tukes, who has two children in Duval County Public Schools.
Fortunately for Tukes, those questions will not include who is teaching her first and 12th graders.
Both of her kids had teachers assigned when they opened their new schedules. That wasn't the case for her daughter last year.
"She didn't have a Spanish teacher for the full year, so the first part of it was kind of difficult," said Tukes.
Duval County Public Schools had 512 openings to start July. Despite raising substitute pay and the board asking to put a property tax increase on the August ballot to increase teacher salaries, the number still sits at 470.
Surrounding schools districts are admittedly significantly smaller than Duval, but are having issues of their own.
Both Nassau and Clay County report higher than normal vacancy numbers, at 29 and 48 respectively.
The president of the Duval County Teacher's Union, Terrie Brady, says teachers she's seeing teachers leave the industry more and more for the private sector.
"They don't have to spend money out of their pocket to have success in the classroom with materials and supplies," said Brady. "They don't have to be berated or maligned. They don't have to be non-appreciated. And they get more pay."
Brady predicts things will be even more stressful for teachers this year - because she thinks class sizes in many districts across the state will be bigger than the legal limit.
From Pre-K to 3rd grade, there can be no more than 18 kids in a room, 22 for 4th through 8th grade and 25 for high school classrooms.
"We weren't even able to meet those prerequisites last year for class sizes, so the burden is not only on the child, it's on the employees that are currently there," said Brady.
The National Education Association says Florida actually ranks 16th in new teacher pay, but only 48th out of 50 states in overall teacher pay.
Voters will have the opportunity to close that gap in August by raising property taxes, but that won't impact the recruitment effort right now, with school just two to three weeks away for districts in the Northeast Part of the State.