Broward Schools in a New York State of Mind
School Board claims the pool of teachers is shrinking
Getty Images
Architect Daniel Libeskind's winning design for the World Trade Center site is shown February 27, 2003 in New York City. Libeskind's design was selected as the winning site plan by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation.
When faced with massive teacher layoffs, the Broward School Board did what any logical boss would do.
Advertise the potentially new open positions in the Big Apple.
An ad in the New York Times trying to recruit New York teachers to come to sunny South Florida has local teachers fuming.
"They are threatening to lay off teachers in June, and they're going out of state in order to hire teachers," said Broward Teacher's Union President Pat Santeramo told the Sun-Sentinel. "It does not make any sense."
Who says math needs to make sense in public school?
The School Board just laid off about 400 teachers and could give pink slips to a few more to balance its budget for next school year. Talks are already underway to get rid of a number of physical education and arts teachers to save a few bucks.
But out of no where comes a pretty appealing proposal for teachers in New York who might want a change of scenery.
"TEACH near the BEACH."
School officials said the pool of teachers in critical need areas like math, science and English is shrinking so they need to recruit elsewhere.
The ad appears to be working, because more than 50 applications from New York have already been submitted. The school board also plans to reach out to Detroit and other major cities in the near future.
"We're like any other business; we have to match our needs," Superintendent Jim Notter said.
