After laying off nearly 400 teachers in June, the Broward County, Fla., school system is now looking to fill dozens of positions, according to The Miami Herald.
At the end of June, 394 teachers were laid off due to budget cuts and low enrollment levels. The majority were elementary teachers who were in their first years of teaching in the school system. According to Broward Schools Superintendent Jim Notter, most of the 89 new positions cannot be filled by these recently laid-off teachers because of lack of certification or qualification requirements.
``It’s just a huge slap in the face of all those teachers,’' said Broward Teacher Union President Pat Santeramo.
Union officials say they want the district to move currently employed teachers who are qualified into the open positions, thus opening up positions for the recently laid-off teachers.
The open positions vary from high school math and science teachers to dance, automotive technology and foreign language instructors.
Broward County school board members promised to rehire as many as teachers as possible the week after the June layoffs. So far, 133 teachers have been rehired and 18 have cut ties with the school district. The schools have also used their federal stimulus funding to hire 42 teachers as academic coaches.