TAMPA, Fla. — As students head back to the classroom, hundreds of new teachers in Hillsborough County are also preparing for their very first day at school.

What You Need To Know

  • Hillsborough County School district hiring hundreds of new teachers for 2024-2025 school year; they need to hire 400

  • One new teacher, Maria Ortiz, transitioned from being the principal's secretary to teaching this school year to help fill vacancy

  • More Back to School headlines

One school, Temple Terrace Elementary, needed several new teachers this school year to accommodate over 100 new students. The principal there says hiring was tough, but she filled one of her open positions with someone familiar to students.

It’s someone who knows the school better than anyone — her secretary.

For the last four years, Maria Ortiz’ office was in the administration building.

“I was the bookkeeper, the principal’s secretary, the person who orders everything for the school, a little bit of everything,” she said.

This school year, though, you won’t find Ortiz in administration.  Now, she has a new office in a different building — her very own classroom.

“Well, I’m going to be a kindergarten teacher,” she said. 

Her list of titles at Temple Terrace Elementary is long. First, she was a parent & PTA member, then all of the positions she has held in the last 17.5 years as an employee, and recently, she decided it was time to get back to teaching.

“I said, ‘Hey Ashley (Cochol), what do I need to do to work on getting back into class?’” Lopez said of the principal.

“Immediately she jumped in and offered me the job, and she helped me do all the steps to get here, and it happened in less than a month,” Lopez said.

“It was very evident the first time I met her how much she loved Temple Terrace.  She’s been at Temple Terrace Elementary as long as just about anybody can remember,” said Cochol.

The principal said hiring was a challenge this year, because of an influx of new students with Kimbell Elementary closing, and finding teachers like Lopez was an even bigger challenge.

“We gained over 100 students, so that is equivalent to another four classroom teachers we needed to find, and it’s easy to teach people how to teach and the logistics of how to run a classroom, those type of things. The things you can’t teach are how to love the students,” said Cochol.

The community chipped in and donated books to Lopez to help with her classroom library, and reading is something she plans to focus on.

“I love to read and I want to introduce that to them, because some of them maybe haven’t ever had a book in their hands. So I want them to start loving reading,” she said.

Lopez admits she is a little bit nervous about her new role, but on the first day, and every day after, you’ll find her greeting her students at the door with a smile on her face.

“I’ll be at that door, waiting for each one of them, to give them that hug that maybe they didn’t get at home, but they’re going to get it from me, and I’m going to motivate them,” she said.

Lopez received her bachelor’s degree in education in Puerto Rico before moving here, so all she had to do to teach was get her certification.