LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — Summer break doesn't mean a break for the school districts. As kids are out, their recruiters are working to find teachers to put in the classrooms.
The districts are constantly hiring and say their vacancy counts are fluid, however, on June 5 they reported the following:
Manatee County: 61 educator vacancies (roughly 2.2% of its total teaching positions)
Pasco County: 229 educator vacancies (roughly 4% of its total teaching positions)
Pinellas County: 175 educator vacancies (roughly 2.5% of its total teaching positions)
Polk County: 420 educator vacancies (roughly 6% of its total teaching positions)
Sarasota County: 145 vacancies (roughly 4.5% of its total teaching positions)
Hillsborough County School District could not collect this data before this article was published.
Kaley Aguilera, a recruiter for Pasco County Elementary Schools said Tampa Bay is no exception to the national teaching shortage. "I think everyone is facing those challenges," she said.
Debra Cucchiara, the manager of talent acquisitions for Pinellas School District, agreed.
"I've been doing this job for over 20 years and the pool used to be much greater and vast, and now it's just shrunk. We have to work much harder for the person that we find. You have to work much harder to secure them in our school district," she explained.
Both seasoned recruiters say the hiring process today requires a bit of thinking outside the box.
Aguilera said, "It's getting creative and being innovative in your ideas of how to find people and find their niche."
In Pinellas County, that means searching for interest as early as high school.
Cucchiara explained, "We probably started their sophomore year all the way through junior and senior year, and talk to them about positions or about opportunities to work in the school district. Those that were really interested, we follow up with them on a quarterly basis and check in with them."
In both Pinellas and Pasco, it also means searching beyond those who studied education. Increasingly, they're hearing from workers looking to make a career pivot.
Cucchiara said, "I would say, 75% of my calls to myself and my recruiter are those that want a career change. Like, they're kind of burnt out in their corporate career and they want to go ahead and serve our community."
Aguilera said she has seen the same. "We have some of our team who worked forever in finance and they said, you know, 'I'm really good at math, and so maybe I'll be a math teacher.' 'You know, my son's in middle school, and I want to go be a middle school math teacher and be on the same schedule as my kids.'"
They say making their district desirable for educators comes down to payment, of course, but also a supportive environment.
Aguilera said, "You have to love the environment that you're in. Teaching is hard. It's hard work. But it's worth it and it makes it so much better if you enjoy who you're teaching with."
Each district is hosting various hiring events this summer. You can find details below:
Manatee County
Two virtual teacher and paraprofessional job fairs are scheduled for this summer. One on Tuesday, June 25, and one on Tuesday, July 23. Both of these virtual job fairs are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. For more information, click here.
Pasco County
The Pasco County Annual Community Job Fair at Chasco Elementary School is on Wednesday, June 19 from 4-6 p.m.
Local community members are welcome to attend. They also recruit for non-instructional roles like custodians, maintenance technicians, after-school enrichment staff members, etc.
Pinellas County
Wednesday, June 12 – Alternative Certification Program.
Wednesday, June 26 – "Meet the Recruiters" event for certified teachers.
For more information about events and applying for a position, click here.
Polk County
PCPS is hosting several in-person and online recruiting events this summer. It will be announcing the next event soon. To stay up to date on those opportunities, click here.
Sarasota County
A job fair at Suncoast Technical College’s North Port campus will be held at the end of July. The recruitment team will be promoting all district vacancies at this event. For more information, click here.