The Pasco County school year kicks off today with the district still in need of teachers.

  • Pasco County schools first day today
  • School district dealing with growth by hiring new teachers
  • Also focusing on graduation rates
  • BN9 Education resources
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With the explosive growth along the State Road 54 corridor, Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning said the district is prepping for a need for more teachers.

The school district has grown as well, having to serve an additional 100,000 new students in the past few years. With schools in West Pasco actually under capacity and school along 54 well in excess, the district is also trying to alleviate partial overcrowding with its current budget.

That adds up to new schools, new teachers and a new focus.

It has also meant focusing on a graduation rate that saw a 0.6 percent drop. And while it doesn't seem like much, it only took 34 students county-wide not to graduate to drop the rate.

Browning said the district takes graduation numbers serious and will put emphasis on students who are close to graduating but struggling to make the cut.

And part of helping those students - as well as others - is bringing on more teachers. Browning said the district is working on bringing more teachers, especially with another elementary school set to open in another year.

"The growth is everywhere, we’re seeing the growth everywhere," Browning said. "We anticipate seeing about 1600 new students this school year.  We believe, we’ve estimated about 500 of that number, will be going to charter schools, but the other 1100 will be coming into our classrooms.

"The thing about 1100 kids, that’s a middle school, so you have what’s equivalent to a middle school coming in every year and you’re not building new schools to keep up with it that means other schools are going to feel the brunt of the growth, so we do know that the growth is occurring along the 54 corridor and that is where we see it."