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    • COMMUNITY

    TEACHER HIRING ‘PAUSE’ UNDERWAY EXCEPT FOR LARGE CLASSROOMS

    Will resume hiring after October survey of number of students

    By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor

    The Wakulla County School Board approved a pause in hiring for new teachers until October, when the fall survey of students in classrooms will determine how much state money districts receive.


    Superintendent of Schools Bobby Pearce

    Superintendent of Schools Bobby Pearce said that there will be exceptions – for example, the need for a math teacher at the high school level is critical, he said.
    Teachers with significantly larger classes will receive a stipend, Pearce said.
    He added that the pause is being done with an eye on the district’s budget, and that the pause could enable the district to give employee pay raises.
    The pause is enabled by the state no longer sanctioning districts for class size violations, Pearce noted.
    The district – like districts state-wide – has faced a teacher shortage. Pearce commented that having brought in some “exhange teachers would have been nice,” but that’s off the table after a contentious school board meeting several months ago when citizens and teachers turned out to complain about foreign teachers being brought in to teach classes.
    The president of the company that does the teacher exchange program watched Facebook video of the meeting posted by participants and told Pearce the company would not bring teachers to Wakulla out of concern about xenophobic comments made at the meeting.
    Pearce noted that Franklin County now has five exchange teachers, and speculated some of those teachers might have been designated for Wakulla prior to the company’s withdrawal.
    He noted that one teacher at the high school is simultaneously teaching two classrooms of students in math – 40 to 45 students – bouncing between the two classrooms, and projecting her lessons on screens.
    There are also some overcrowded classrooms – for example at Wakulla Middle School. Those teachers with significantly larger classes are receiving extra money.
    The district faced a teacher shortage of about two dozen teachers before school started. Pearce said the number of open positions is somewhat skewed – and he offered an example that there are currently eight substitute teachers in classrooms waiting for clearance from the state to be recognized as actual teachers.
    And Pearce said it is not a hiring freeze, just a pause.
    “After we see the final FTE in October and see what the budget looks like,” he said that the school board could consider employee pay raises.