Teachers Apply For DeSoto County Jobs After Hearing StateImpact Florida Story

Sarah Gonzalez / StateImpact Florida

Shannon Fusco is the principal of DeSoto High School, one of the Florida schools having trouble replacing teachers who left over the summer break.

Our story on Florida schools starting the year with hundreds of teacher vacancies is helping one high school fill teaching positions that have been empty for weeks.

DeSoto County High School has been struggling to find foreign language teachers.

Our story aired nationally on NPR, and the school’s principal says she has since received  about 10 calls and emails from teachers around the country interested in a job at the rural school.

Principal Shannon Fusco says most are from out of the state.

Two of the candidates are from the West Coast…of California, not Florida.

Today, Fusco is interviewing a Florida teacher to take over one of the school’s Spanish classes.

Students taking Spanish at the school have been in the class with either a substitute teacher who doesn’t speak any Spanish, or with the school’s front desk receptionist.

Students taking French class started the year with a math tutor who doesn’t speak any French. And last year students went without a teacher certified in physics or chemistry for more than three months.

You can read about another Florida teacher getting hired just in time for the start of classes here. The first-year teacher had just over a week to create his curriculum for the year.