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Brevard Public Schools to get creative to fill nearly 400 teacher openings next school year

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Brevard Public Schools school board member wants to go door-to-door to find new teachers.

District leaders say they are anticipating 399 teacher openings next school year that will need to be filled.

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School Board Chair Matt Susin said there are people living in the community right now who are qualified to fill those jobs.

“If you have a teacher certification, we’re coming for you,” Susin said. “We’re going to be hitting car loops we’re going to be hitting everything.”

Read: Brevard Public Schools narrows list of candidates for superintendent role

The Brevard Federation of Teachers Vice President Vanessa Skipper said there are a number of reasons teachers aren’t in the classroom: pay, working conditions, and school discipline, just to name a few of the issues.

Skipper said everyone has to be willing to work together to find common ground to move forward.

Read: Interim Brevard Public Schools superintendent placed on paid leave

“I think that it’s important for them to try anything and everything to try to fill our classrooms because the reality is, is there are students in classrooms that went the entire school year without a teacher. And ultimately, that’s really unacceptable,” Skipper said. “And you know, the district needs to make some serious changes in the way of compensation.”

Skipper said she believes a recently passed school millage tax will soon help the school district increase pay for teachers and staff.

Read: Brevard school board shakeup sees interim superintendent placed on administrative leave

Susin said he hopes to kick off the hiring effort in about 30 days.

“We’ve redone the discipline, we’ve redone the cell phone policy, we’re redoing the dress code policy so those teachers can be proud every day they walk in so we’re going to go get ‘em now,” he said.

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Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson, WFTV.com

Sarah Wilson joined WFTV Channel 9 in 2018 as a digital producer after working as an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly a decade in various communities across Central Florida.