The Citrus County School District welcomed 105 new teachers and administrators at the start of the school year, with numbers climbing every day, say district leaders.
“We are definitely in a better place than we were last year at this time,” said Human Resource Director Suzanne Swain. “Currently, we have 38 long-term subs in vacant positions, we have 33 vacant positions posted, but you know in our world — we have it constantly moving so we also have teachers processing to go into those vacancies.”
In recent years the school district has gone out of state to recruit teachers, which has proven successful with teachers coming from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Minnesota this year.
As of right now, the greatest need is for elementary schools, with 22 teacher vacancies. There are 10 open positions in middle schools and six in high schools.
During a special school board meeting Tuesday, Swain discussed how staffing was shaping up for the 2017/2018 academic year, with board members wanting to know if there are creative ways to fill in those vacancies.
Board member Thomas Kennedy asked to re-look at retirees.
“We’ve talked about this in the past, but I think it is worth talking about again, and that is our great retired teachers and utilizing them more creatively to fill some of these positions, especially at the high school level,” Kennedy said, noting math and science positions are the most difficult to fill.
Superintendent of Schools Sandra “Sam” Himmel said retirees are always welcome to come back.
“I know (Swain) does have that conversation when teachers beginning to retire,” Himmel said. “If they would like to come back, they can. I know some will even come back full time after retirement and we are not opposed to that.”
Kennedy agreed. “I could think of some teachers in retirement would love to come out and teach.”
Another positive aspect of retirees coming back to teach, Swain said, is that the district absorbs the cost of drug test and fingerprinting.
Board members decided to put the topic on the agenda for an upcoming administrators/principals meeting so schools can have the option of hiring retirees on a contract basis.
Currently, the district job portal shows vacancies in elementary grades, elementary physical education, agriculture, drafting, language arts, math, science, Exceptional Student Education and speech/language pathologist.
For more information, visit: http://www.citrus.k12.fl.us.