Teachers, Students Start Over

For some, it's the third "first" day of school.

Monday marked a day of starting over for an unprecedented number of district teachers and students, with changes in student population numbers forcing 29 teachers to shift to different classrooms from those they started in.

The changes also caused hundreds of students to be funneled into new classes this week - marking a third try after one false start due to the storm threat cancellation of the district's second day of school.

"It's almost like the first day of school again," said Hernando Classroom Teachers' Association president Joe Vitalo.

Because teachers with the least seniority at individual schools were first in line for the switch, many of the transferred teachers had to tear down carefully plastered posters and haul brand new learning activities and books to a different classroom. That's one of the reasons why officials tried to keep them at the same grade level - to keep their teaching materials as relevant as possible, Vitalo said.

"I know of one teacher who spent more than $1,000 on all kinds of stuff for her classroom," he said. "A lot of these new teachers don't have a lot of this stuff, so they go out and get their own."

This year's changes were caused by significant changes in numbers: roughly 328 fewer students than expected in Hernando County schools and nearly 300 students switching schools this year due to "adequate yearly progress," or AYP.

Other students switched schools this fall due to rezoning efforts, families moving into new rental units and magnet programs.

"These are decisions we have to make every year but, in the past, we have been able to keep teachers at (their home schools) because we know those schools will grow," Vitalo said. "Now, because of the loss of students, we are not able to allow teachers to stay there for the next year's growth."

Nineteen of the transferred teachers shifted between schools, while the remaining 10 shifted to different grade levels or positions at the school where they were already stationed.

While most of the transfers were teachers who volunteered to switch - after being notified of the vacancies - Vitalo said 13 of the transfers were involuntary.

Schools that lost teachers due to declining student populations include Deltona, Moton, Pine Grove, Spring Hill and Westside Elementary Schools and West Hernando Middle School. Schools that gained teachers include Brooksville and Suncoast Elementary Schools, Explorer, Powell Middle School and Nature Coast Technical High School.

On the 10th day of school, Deltona had 140 fewer students than expected - causing a loss of five teachers and classroom switches for two more - while Explorer had 221 more students than expected, gaining 13 teachers and shifting seven others internally.

Many of the teachers moved from classrooms with smaller class sizes to co-teaching situations, with two teachers and as many as 40 students.

"Ideally, we would always rather have one teacher and one classroom, but (co-teaching) is one of the unfortunate effects of class-size amendments," Vitalo said. "The nice thing is the classrooms are large enough, so they can handle it."

Another positive of the transfers is that officials were able to remove portables at some of the district's schools - and many transferred teachers stayed behind to help their former students' transition with their new teachers, he added.

In addition to Explorer, other schools in the district that boasted notable enrollment increases were Brooksville Elementary School, J.D. Floyd K-8, Powell Middle School and Nature Coast Technical High School.

The rest either had fewer students than anticipated or met their projected enrollment.

Next month, each child will be counted for state enrollment numbers, which determines how much the district will receive in per-student funding.

At the district's 10-day count, 22,504 students had been counted at Hernando County Schools, or 328 fewer than projected. At $3,998 in state funding for each student, that would equal a shortfall in revenue for the district of $1,311,344.

At that point, teachers could lose their jobs if enrollment doesn't increase - but no one expects that to happen, Vitalo said.

"We will not have layoffs as long as we have open positions within the district," he said. "The state may not have planned for the shortfall, but we had never counted on it. We've already budgeted for some of that money, and we're pretty close to (the shortfall that will have to be paid back)."