JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As Duval County Public Schools plans to host a community meeting on Tuesday night about the consolidation of two of its schools, the district held a career fair exclusively for retired teachers looking to re-enter the public education workforce.<\/p>\n
The consolidation is part of the district\u2019s master facilities plan approved last year to handle declining enrollment. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Additionally, the state\u2019s new Schools of Hope law allows certain charter schools to move into public schools that have open space, free of charge.<\/p>\n Action News Jax was not allowed to attend today\u2019s career fair, but we did speak with some retired educators as they were leaving. <\/p>\n \u201cI do believe there\u2019s a teacher shortage in this area,\u201d Atu Lacey, a semi-retired teacher for DCPS, said.<\/p>\n With that concern raised as a potential reason for the district holding a job fair specifically for retirees, we reached out to the district and asked why, especially as administrators are looking to consolidate district schools. We also asked if they are experiencing a teacher shortage right now.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n DCPS <\/b>sent Action News Jax back a statement that reads:<\/p>\n \u201cThere will always be a need for talented educators<\/b><\/a> <\/b>due to normal attrition, retirements, resignations, and existing vacancies. Our students and families depend on high-quality teachers, and events like this help ensure we continue to provide strong instruction and support positive student outcomes.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s fair is one of <\/b>several recruitment efforts<\/b><\/a> <\/b>we host each year. Some are designed for specific groups\u2014such as retired educators\u2014while others are open to all. What makes today particularly unique is that we proactively invited media partners to help broaden our reach and encourage more community members to consider joining Team Duval.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n As for why Lacey attended Tuesday\u2019s career fair:<\/p>\n \u201cI came to put my hat into the ring to get back into the field of education,\u201d Lacey said. \u201cI think our focus has changed from the children and the future to the now. I think we\u2019re so focused on adults and jobs, and now we\u2019re not focused on educating and preparing our children for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n DCPS did not say if it is experiencing a teacher shortage right now.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As Duval County Public Schools plans to host a community meeting on Tuesday night about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,26459,82520,3188,723,29918,2609,7310,425,29917,30170,35719,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-388252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dcps","10":"tag-duval_county_public_schools","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-foglio","14":"tag-hope","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-madison","18":"tag-madison_foglio","19":"tag-shaq","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115572411318127303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}