Hiring Freeze Lifted At District

BROOKSVILLE - The "unofficial" hiring freeze at the Hernando County School District is over.

The freeze had been in place since October, when - faced with an uncertain financial future due to a cut in state funds - district officials asked that school administrators to hold off on filling all but the most urgent staffing needs.

"To see where you are financially, you have to stop the world," Superintendent Wayne Alexander said. "You look at a snapshot of where you are, see what the needs are and you go from there."

Requests were addressed on a case-by-case basis, with many open teaching positions held temporarily by longer-term substitutes.

At press time, it was unclear how many current open teaching positions there are in Hernando County schools.

However, Alexander said several factors have made the district's financial picture clear enough to start hiring again, including the district's final state budget cut reaching $2.28 million - $1 million less than expected - and the Hernando Classroom Teachers' Association's union contract being ratified, setting aside $75,981,205 for teacher salaries.

With the Hernando United School Workers union's contract nearing ratification - at an estimated $20,330,122 for non-instructional staff salaries - Alexander said he felt comfortable enough with the district's financial situation to start hiring again.

He said the district will have about 90 positions to fill at Explorer K-8, the new school on Northcliffe Boulevard, which will need to be filled in anticipation of the school's opening this fall.

However, many of the school's teaching positions will most likely be filled by existing employees who transfer from other schools, he said.

That's because the number of new positions is not due to an influx of incoming students, which has actually slowed in the county in recent years. While the state's projections for previous years set the number of new students at 1,000, this year drew less than 500. Next year is expected to draw less than 400.

Instead, state funds have been allocated to each district for additional personnel to accommodate a state change in policy: Actual class size, as opposed to aggregated class size.

Actual class size mandates numbers of students per teacher by classroom, whereas aggregated class size measures the ratio of students to teachers within a school. The new rules are: 18 students per class in elementary school, 22 students per class in middle school and 25 students per class in high school.

With a new principal from Broward County already appointed for Explorer K-8, most of the school's new hires are expected to be mandated support staff, such as custodians and cafeteria workers.

Districtwide, however, Alexander estimated that officials will hire between 80 and 90 new employees for the 2008-09 school year prior to April 1.