Pinellas County School District sees improvement in teacher shortage

The teacher shortage in Pinellas County has improved.

“I came here, and I just felt so comfortable and at home,” said Simi Butalia, a teacher at Pinellas Park Middle School.

She’s a seventh and eighth-grade science teacher.

“I feel like I’ve always naturally enjoyed teaching others, tutoring, helping others,” said Butalia.

This will be her first year teaching.

“Just being able to provide our students with a good support system is, to me, really important,” said Butalia.

Butalia moved to Florida from Ohio and specifically chose the Pinellas County School District to begin her teaching career.

“Just through my research of the different Florida schools, this school district was rated as one of the top school districts as well as when you go and look out there for information, teachers really love to work here,” she said.

This is a trend the school district has seen as officials have been able to fill more open teacher positions this summer.

This time last year, the Pinellas County School District had about 120 teacher vacancies. This year, there are currently only 49.

“That is actually unheard of,” said Debra Cucchiara, Talent and Acquisition Manager for Pinellas County Schools.

This low of a number is unusual during a time when the teacher shortage is worsening in many places.

In Hillsborough County, for comparison, the district will start the school year with about 500 teacher vacancies.

ABC Action News asked Cucchiara why there’s been such an improvement in Pinellas.

“We were rated an A district, so that’s amazing and wonderful… We have innovative programs. Our teacher salary is competitive. We just have a lot of pluses and bonuses to attract teachers here,” she said.

They’ve also been able to fill openings through different avenues.

“Of course, our interns have helped. The interns that were here in the spring made up a good number of our advanced contracts here at Pinellas County,” said Cucchiara.

“We have our first cohort of apprentices that are coming aboard this fall so that will definitely help as well,” she added.

Overall, school officials have been working throughout the summer to try to get as many classrooms filled with teachers and ready for students to return.

“It’s kind of all hands on deck on different sources that we have and that we utilize to help fill our vacancies,” said Cucchiara.

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