Escambia Schools Have Just 47 Open Teacher Positions

August 1, 2023

The first day of school is less than two weeks away,  and the Escambia County school district says they are in good shape on teacher hiring.

With classes beginning on August 10, there are just 47 teacher positions open in the Escambia County Public Schools. Administrators say they’re confident those remaining positions would be filled by the time students return to the classroom.

At the end of the last school year, ECPS projected they would need to fill 340 teacher vacancies before the end of the summer.

“Our hiring process is ongoing and robust,” said Melia Adams, director of Human Resource Services for ECPS, adding “we have a strong pool of substitute teachers ready to step in as needed to fill any remaining vacancies.”

The district is also filling vacant bus driver positions, even as many school districts across the state and nation struggle to do so.

Darlene Hart, director of Transportation for ECPS, said last week that the district had just 11 routes without drivers.

People from the community as well as people in other positions throughout the district are helping us to make sure that students are transported to school,” she said. “On the first day of school, we’re going to be covered.”

Comments

4 Responses to “Escambia Schools Have Just 47 Open Teacher Positions”

  1. THE DOER on August 1st, 2023 7:29 pm

    K Paul:
    Yes, that’s the point. We have people coming in to fill the positions, which is great, but sadly many have degrees in anything. They are not certified teachers and are not specialists in their fields.

  2. Becky on August 1st, 2023 10:05 am

    Becky, speaking as someone who works for the District and has some insider knowledge, NO, they won’t last. At least, not until/unless parents start backing up teachers when their kids act up. Not until/unless principals back up their teachers and hold students accountable, rather than being afraid of having “too many” referrals and sweeping them under the rug to make their numbers look better. Not until/unless teachers are trusted to do what they are trained to do, rather than being required to create online catalogs of their classroom libraries so parents can police them (most teachers are just packing up their books instead, FYI, rather than typing thousands of titles into some database… students have less access to books than they have had in 40+ years). Teachers and bus drivers are villanized at every turn, faced with constant disrespect and distrust, low pay, and terrible benefits. And then everyone wrings their hands and wonders why we have no teachers and no bus drivers! They aren’t supported by the government, their administrators, or the parents of their students. Why would they *WANT* to remain in those jobs?!

  3. K Paul on August 1st, 2023 10:05 am

    How many teachers do we have that ARE NOT certified to teach?

  4. Community member on August 1st, 2023 9:10 am

    Yes, but how long will these newly hired teachers and bus drivers last? Will the district be able to retain them? I would like to see a followup article…