Almost 100 Orange County Public Schools teachers likely will lose their jobs next month as the school district navigates the financial fallout from declining enrollment.
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OCPS, Central Florida’s largest school system, now enrolls about 8,000 fewer students than it did in May. That means a sharp drop in state per-pupil funding, which provides the bulk of its budget.
In addition to likely letting go 98 teachers — almost all new hires in their first teaching jobs — the district also will move 114 other instructional employees to different campuses based on student enrollment.
On Monday, OCPS spokesman Michael Ollendorff said impacted teachers have been told that they are “being displaced” from their current position though not the date when they will be moved or no longer employed. A total of 212 employees were notified of such changes.
OCPS employs about 13,000 instructional staff, most of them classroom teachers but also school librarians and psychologists, among other roles.
Clinton McCracken, the president of the district’s teachers union, said he’s never seen teacher cuts of this scale in Orange County.
“It’s scary for all of these people who are currently trying to figure out where their next paycheck is going to come from. Are they going to be able to stay in a career that they’re excited about?” he said.
The district has seen steep enrollment drops for the last two years, mostly in its elementary schools, a dramatic change in a school system that a decade ago was adding more students than any other in Florida.
For years, OCPS often faced a teacher shortage. Four years ago, for example, it was scrambling to fill spots in August as classes began and was still searching for about 300 instructors in early January 2023.
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Now, many new hires may be out of work soon after they started. McCracken said he’s had some “emotional” conversations with affected teachers.
The district needs to look at trimming fat from upper management before cutting classroom teachers, he added.
“All of it is very frustrating when the people who are working closest with students are the ones to go,” he said.
The district has about 20 vacancies, but most teachers impacted by the cuts do not have the proper certifications to fill those positions. A kindergarten teacher, for example, would likely not have the qualifications to fill a vacancy for a speech and language pathologist, which is one of the openings.
Following the rules of its teacher contract, some more experienced teachers whose jobs were eliminated will be moved into slots now filled by new employees, and the new employees will be the ones out of work, the district said.
But administrators are trying to find openings for any teacher whose job is to be eliminated because there aren’t as many students as projected in their school, Ollendorff said.
“We’re going to work hard to make sure that we can pair all of those impacted instructional staff with a possible position,” he said.
District officials blame declining birth rates, a slower housing market, the popularity of Florida’s state-funded voucher program — which provides scholarships for private schools or homeschooling services — and the country’s immigration crackdown for the smaller number of students now attending public schools.
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