MONTICELLO, Fla. (WTXL) — “The most important decision you can make is the teacher you put into the classroom with your students, and we’ve got some great ones here,” says Jackie Pons.
This year Jefferson County School is starting fresh and hiring new faculty after being named one of the lowest performing schools in Florida. So far, they’ve already hired 35 new teachers. That’s more than half of its teaching staff.
After 5 years of being a charter school Jefferson County is now controlled by the local school board. Meaning it belongs back to the community and will recreate everything from the ground up, such as curriculum, bell schedules, support staff, and most importantly, teachers.
Though the school system is offering higher salary packages for its teachers many feel that is not the only reason teachers are being drawn to Jefferson County.
“There was a lot of people out in the community and around the state of Florida that wanted to see Jefferson come back and wanted to see Jefferson taken back over by the community. And a lot of those individuals wanted to be a part of this process. We have teachers who have moved him from Palm Beach, Miami, Leon County, Madison, we’ve just had a lot of individuals who have wanted to be a part of this,” says Jackie Pons.
Curriculum Coordinator Shelbi McCall believes that Jefferson is heading in the right direction. With their strong academic coaches, great administrative team, and a great super intendent they have all the right ingredients for a successful year.
“Every educator we have here truly cares and that’s something different. I feel like that there’s some places that some teachers are brand new, fresh out of college and don’t know what to expect. We have several seasoned veteran teachers coming in that really know their stuff,” says Shelbi McCall.
Jefferson County is looking to fill 2 to 3 more teacher slots before the school year begins.
