The names of three educators are called. After them, three more. Each one passionately states their case. They address the school board to let them know that they’re tired, that each of their students requires more time than they can give and that they have at least 20 asking for it. Teachers stand with administrators during the public comments section of a school board meeting to explain that they understand teachers face challenges, but the challenges they’ve faced this year have been too great.

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Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) is currently experiencing approximately 200 classroom vacancies this school year. The teacher shortage is not a new phenomenon. Hillsborough County specifically, because it is such a large district, has often faced the problem of a lack of teachers, or a low number of teachers certified in the subject they teach, especially in Achievement Schools, schools designated by the district for additional resources.

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A nationwide epidemic

During this school year, this problem has become increasingly critical. Enrollment in HCPS (including

charter schools) has steadily increased in recent years, according to the Florida Department of

Education. Unfortunately, the number of teachers employed in the district is not proportional to this rate of growth. But this is not just a Hillsborough County specific issue, or even a Florida one, the teacher shortage is a nationwide epidemic.

 

There’s a decreased interest in education. Teachers have never earned the highest salary, but that hasn’t previously deterred high schoolers and college students from aspiring to spend their career in a classroom. However, according to HCPS General Manager of Personnel Services Dena Collins, there has even been

decreased enrollment in education courses at the college level, and a lower number of teacher certifications

as a result.

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“The teacher shortage is not just a Hillsborough County concern, it’s a national concern that we’re seeing and that we have been working with our university partners as well, who have also been seeing a shortage of college students going into the colleges of education,” Collins said. “If you think about the trickle-down effect, we start really with our high school students and their interest in becoming a teacher, and then that goes into their interest in becoming a teacher in college and then actually becoming a teacher.”

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The Spark plan

Currently, the subjects with the greatest absence of educators are exceptional student education (ESE), math, science and English, and this absence is felt most greatly in Achievement Schools, which require more intensive support for their students.

 

To attract teachers to these schools, HCPS voted to enact Spark incentives. These incentives will include salary increases for qualified teachers to relocate to Achievement Schools. Collins is hopeful that by incentivizing work at these schools, the school district will be able to both gain and retain experienced teachers in the long-run.

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“We hope to see that we will be able to attract experienced teachers to go to our Achievement Schools and we expect to hire new teachers to those schools. We also want to look at the career of a teacher,” Collins said. “If I can get our experienced teachers in our Achievement Schools knowing that our first- and second-year teachers are going to have opportunities in many other schools because there will be vacancies, then as they grow in those experiences and they’re surrounded by other experienced teachers, then we’re going to retain teachers.”

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Potential problems

With the financial incentivization of jobs at Achievement Schools, there will be a direct effect on Title I schools like Hillsborough, which will not be receiving this plan. By attracting experienced and qualified teachers to these schools, there could potentially be a deterrent for other teachers seeking to apply to schools like Hillsborough.

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“We’re definitely going to have to continue being very smart in how we market our school, and I think that Hillsborough has a lot to offer in terms of attracting people to the teaching career because we do

already have a lot of great teachers here and we have a great principal, administrative staff and guidance

counselors,” Assistant Principal Philip Morris said. “I think that there are lot of attractors that draw people into a school like Hillsborough, we just have to be sure to sell the best and brightest aspects of our school to interested people, but we can’t overcome someone’s decision to work at a higher needs school for an increased salary rate because we just can’t offer that.”

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However, Collins is confident that the plan will eventually attract new teachers to all the schools in the district. “We do see a benefit by providing opportunities for experienced teachers to go into achievement schools and accept new challenges and know that there’s a financial reward for going into those schools, and we know that we can continue to attract additional teachers because of these opportunities,” she said.

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The school district is also looking to attract teachers through the substitute program, Kelly Services, which is the main source of substitutes for the county. Recruiters and mentors, mostly retired principals, are working with this service to train and guide substitutes into a permanent teaching position.

 

Currently at Hillsborough, there are only two vacancies, so the school is adequately staffed. However, the administration has faced difficulties with finding teachers to fill positions that opened earlier in the year and in years previous. “It’s just a smaller pool of candidates and I remember that when I first started working here, even three years ago, when we’d go into our system that allows us to look at qualified candidates, there would be greater numbers. Symbolically, that’s showing you a decline of options, so you must be very careful in who you select,” Morris said.

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Although there is concern that the Spark plan will potentially siphon off qualified teachers from Title I schools that also require significant support, the necessity for the plan at higher needs schools remains undisputed. “I understand the need for highly qualified teachers at our achievement schools because those students also deserve the best teachers they can possibly get, so it’s a complicated dilemma. But if it works, and our high needs schools improve, then you could attribute it to more qualified teachers working at those higher needs

schools,” Morris said.

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Discussions of funding

Currently, district officials along with school administration do not yet know how the plan will specifically impact funding in the next fiscal year, and this uncertainty has caused uneasiness. Despite fears that the plan might negatively impact things like Title I funding, the district remains confident that it will prove to be a money-saving technique in the long-run.

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“When we retain teachers and we hire well, there is a reduced cost to the district in terms of return on investment,” Collins explained. "So, when we’re not retaining our teachers, when we’re not continuing

to work and grow with our teachers and keep our teachers, it is more costly to the district. If this plan assists us with teacher retention, it would be cost-saving in the long run.”

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Although there is uncertainty about the logistics of this plan, the goal is to combat the teacher shortage in the district. With approximately 13,000 classroom teachers in HCPS and with more than 800-1,000 more hired annually, addressing this issue is a necessity.

 

As the eighth largest school district in the country, HCPS has a lot of moving parts, and the implementation of the Spark incentive program is one of the first steps of many in establishing a stable teaching workforce in the county. “As we continue to grow in Hillsborough County Schools and in the number of our students, we will

grow in the number of teachers in the workforce,” Collins said.

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View this story on pages 8-9 here.