ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County school board just went over the school district’s yearly “comprehensive financial report,” which included some numbers teachers say highlight a dire need for more instructors.
The report was put together back in June and was included in the school board’s meeting agenda for Dec.10. It shares the number of instructional positions in the district from the last 10 years, ending with the number of jobs at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
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Here’s what the report highlighted, which the school district confirmed with Action News Jax after first believing the numbers to be inaccurate:
Number of Instructional Positions:
- 2020-2021: 3,266
- 2021-2022: 3,499
- 2022-2023: 3,552
- 2023-2024: 3,554
The district says it only added two more total instructional jobs in just one year, after a series of much larger increases. This is how many more students were added, year by year, in the same time:
Number of Students:
- 2020-2021: 44,059
- 2021-2022: 47,892
- 2022-2023: 50,414
- 2023-2024: 52,954
The district says, in the same time it added those two instructional jobs, it added more than 2,500 students.
Action News Jax’s Finn Carlin spoke with the St. Johns Education Association, the teachers’ union in the county, which says the district has 3,794 current instructional employees, including teachers, and has 85 vacancies.
Teachers say they’re watching other instructors leave the district to go to other districts for better pay.
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“It is heartbreaking,” said Katie Dowdie, president of the St. Johns Education Association. “We need more staff in every school.”
Back in October, the school district shared a presentation showing how its average teacher salaries measure up to neighboring districts. This is how St. Johns County says it compares:
- Flagler County: $58,369 / year
- Duval County: $55,282 / year
- Putnam County: $55,000 / year
- St. Johns County: $53,484 / year
Dowdie says she’s been working with the district for the last 20 years and is now seeing veteran teachers leave the classroom for higher salaries.
“It makes it very difficult to want to be a teacher and to want to stay a teacher,” Dowdie said.
St. Johns County superintendent Tim Forson says teachers are also both leaving the county and avoiding it during the job search because they can’t find affordable places to live.
“We do struggle with that, we continue to struggle with that,” said Forson.
Last month, Action News Jax told you when St. Johns County voters passed targeted tax increases designed, in part, to boost teacher pay, which Forson hopes will attract more teachers to the district.
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“I think we are going to see a noticeable difference in salaries and noticeable improvements for those that are already in our system,” Forson said.
Those changes aren’t expected to take place until July 2025. The St. Johns Education Association is set to meet with the district tomorrow to go over how the funds raised from the tax increases will be put toward higher teacher salaries.
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