JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Former teachers like Kayla Solon tearfully explain in videos posted by Duval County Public Schools why they had to leave the profession.
“The kids are very honest,” she said. “Them telling you that you’re making a difference and how much they love you, they care about you is great, it’s awesome, but it also doesn’t pay my bills.”
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A DCPS spokesperson says the videos are part of an effort to raise awareness of a proposed “one-mil” referendum, which, if approved by voters in August, would cost homeowners $1 for every $1,000 of property value.
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That is not to be confused with the half-cent sales tax that voters already passed — that one is bringing in close to $2 billion over 15 years — but the district says that money can only be used for repairs, renovations and security.
DCPS’ Dr. Tracy Pierce says the district has hired around 300 new teachers, but is still short more than 500 teachers going into the next school year.
“That’s a problem we have to solve. We know that salary and compensation is part of that solution. This referendum gives us the opportunity to do that,” Pierce explained.
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If approved by voters, Pierce says the referendum would bring in about $82 million with much of it going to school staff, including paraprofessionals and teachers like Richard Palo and Monica Kirkland.
“I didn’t really want to leave, but I felt like I needed to just to not have a stress to pay my bills all the time,” Palo said in one of the DCPS videos.
“Like myself, some of them, they’ve had to work second jobs to pay bills to make those ends meet,” Kirkland said in another video.
Pierce added that the state of Florida is 48th in the nation for teacher compensation. DCPS wants to be a competitive school district when it comes to recruiting and retaining high-quality educators, Pierce said.
“They’ve invested in children, and now we have an opportunity to reward them for that,” he said.
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