PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Pinellas County School District is roughly 120 teachers short as they enter the 2023-2024 school year.

According to Superintendent Kevin Hendrick, the district has around 15,000 employees and just over 6,800 teachers.

While administrators work to fill those vacancies, they may staff some classrooms with other district employees and others may have to be combined temporarily.

“We’ve had a really good run here this summer with trying to fill those vacancies, but also keeping those teachers who have been with us for a number of years and making sure we retain them,” Hendrick explained.

The starting salary for Pinellas County teachers currently sits at $51,162. PCTA & PESPA are still negotiating with the district to solidify teacher and support staff contracts. PCTA says they’re requesting a 7.3% increase in order to align with the inflation rate in the area. The next bargaining session is on Aug. 15.

“We’re closing out our financial books to see what we can offer,” Hendricks said. “We want to maximize what we pay our employees, so we’re in the middle of that and we hope to have it solved in the next month or so.”

In an effort to retain teachers and attract more to the district, Pinellas County Schools is working to turn the former Tomlinson Adult Education Center building near Mirror Lake in St. Pete into workforce housing for school staff.

The building, built in the 1920s, was formerly St. Pete Junior High. The district has selected a developer with construction slated to begin this school year. Half of the apartments will be reserved as workforce housing for teachers and district staff, with rates starting at roughly $1,200. The remainder of the building will be open to the public at market rate.

“If they can take care of their own people, with the exodus of people from eduction, maybe we can retain some of our good teachers instead of watching them move into other fields,” said Lee Bryant, a former high school teacher who now serves at PCTA president.

Bryant feels the workforce housing for teachers is a step in the right direction.

“It’s a start. That’s where it is in the grand scheme of things,” he said. “We have a lot of educators in this county — thousands and thousands and it’s a place to start.”