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And if that same newsletter asked the Osceola County Sheriff Department, what do you think the response would be? If you asked, members of the Chamber of Commerce? (Essentially a union of businesses) If you asked a group of nurses? If you asked a group of lawyers? Also a union cares about the working conditions of their members, but the working conditions of teachers are the learning conditions of students as well. People are attracted to careers because of the values that come with those careers. Political Parties attract people based on their values. So it shouldn't be surprising that certain professions attract certain people in certain careers. You act as if the principal's first question when we have a 5,000+ teachers shortage in this state is "who do you vote for? And are you a member of the union?"

Curious, but do you support police and fire unions, or is your disdain only for teachers union?

Belen Jesuit (Miami) - Nick Oyarzun (Twitter) Gateway (Fort Myers) - Charles Powell (Article) Gulf Breeze - Jim Stomps (Twitter) Newsome (Lithia) - Jeff Turner (Twitter)

Hiring: Mainland - Jerrime Bell Zephyerhills Christian Academy - Mike Smith Jr (Article) Gulf Coast (Naples) - Manny Evans (Twitter) Wharton (Tampa) - Abner Smith III (Twitter) Opening: Atlantic (Port Orange) - Due to Jerrime Bell leaving for Mainland Bronson - Per FHSAA Classifieds

https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/03/19/teacher-shortage-crisis-explained/72958393007/ 1st) Florida is a right to work to state, unions (most importantly for this conversation the Florida Education Association) have very little power. If they have so little power, what in the world are they controlling? I can give you countless examples of how the unions have done everything they could to try and stop bad educational/teacher policy, but still failed. And despite having little success, I can also point out to where the state legislature consistently only targets teachers' unions, where the exact same logic of their anti-union laws should apply to police, fire, and correction officer unions, but somehow they are always exempted. 2) Florida has more vacancies than any other state (see article). So yes, when the choice is raising pay for the special education teacher (which we lack) or the head football coach, I am going to continually say the special education teacher, this is basic business sense. If you get a qualified engineer for your business, you raise the pay until you get one. When certain people complain that government isn't run like a business, why is this not part of the conversation? 3) I am posting on a high school football site, I often post the openings/hirings of positions, and have numerous times posted the salaries of all coaches throughout Florida. I understand the value of a coach/club sponsor more than you can ever understand, but I also can understand that given the choice of putting the extra money towards a coach vs the math teacher, I would prefer the math teacher, because schools require math, not sports, despite the very important soft skills that extracurricular activities develop.

Unions want their members compensated. Districts are slow to compensate teachers and coaches, period. Because ultimately coaches/sponsors are extracurriculars, and not the primary focus of the district despite what some on this board would have you believe. Make it easy, ask your local principal how many teaching openings they have this year in their faculty, ask how much turnover will exist in their ranks this summer, and when they replace them, how many will be highly qualified teachers. Ask the AD how many of their coaches are not highly qualified. The problem from the district and unions' perspective is that there isn't a coaching shortage, somebody always wants to be a coach, but few want to be a math teacher or special education and have their career tied to a test that they have no control over. So just like in the business world, you should pay more to get a person to do the job if nobody is willing to do it. Now if you want to blame the unions, blame them and the districts for not being flexible in salaries for areas of critical needs/shortages. Despite their being a shortage, it isn't a universal shortage. Florida isn't struggling for social studies teachers, PE teachers, or elementary teachers, but secondary math, science, english, special ed (all levels), and world languages. Unions/districts have been reluctant to give extra pay to those subjects to entice people to enter the field, but notice, PE teacher isn't on that list. __________________ To give an idea of what will happen, let's use Madison County (since they were mentioned in an above post). Madison County has 30 head coaches and JV/assistant coaches (including cheerleading). The total amount of salaries that they put to those positions is %66,706. Madison County had a budget of $24 million, so .27% of their total budget. If the proposed bill passes, Madison County would spend 322,500, which represents 1.34% of their budget, about 4.8 times more than current. Now, if the state legislature would simple just add the $260,000 onto the budget, the unions wouldn't care other than making sure that all assistant/jv/and non mentioned coaches from the PB Post article are included. But that isn't what will happen, instead it will be a specific line in the budget from the state legislature, similar to technology or textbooks, money will be required to be spent on the salaries and the state will offer no additional funding (or they will only do it for 2 or 3 years, and when there are new priorities, they will still require it but provide no funding for it). Now, if they offer no additional funding, what happens is that money comes from somewhere in the budget. Considering that that this be part of "teacher salaries", that means it will be pulled from general instructional salaries portion of the budget, which means less money for teachers. So yes, teachers will be upset when the state legislature yet again promises something and then underdelivers (see making the starting salary $47,500).

Is there even a continuous supply of money to keep NIL deals for high schoolers going, even at well-funded programs? I mean most programs in Florida seem to be barely surviving as is, the cost of running a program (just talking the basics) seems to be increasing each year with requirements by the state and counties. Security, referees, costs of uniforms, helmets, medical gear, travel costs. We aren't seeing huge increases in attendance at these games. I can't imagine a well funded booster group turning around and saying, "well we got enough extra money to bring in a stud QB and 2 OL for 5K a piece." Instead of making sure that the basics and the just barely beyond basics are covered. Or maybe, I am just too broke to understand ever giving that much money away for anything that doesn't benefit me personally. Also when (not if) NIL becomes a reality, can the FHSAA finally admit that a promotion/relegation would lesson the blow of things like NIL/transfers?

Openings: Mainland (Story) North Marion (Citra) - Story Miami Beach - FHSAA Classifieds Hiring Fort Meade - Maurice Russell (Twitter)

Hiring Lake Worth - Eric Lee (Twitter)

I have said a million times that promotion/relegation system is the way to go, but I also understand that many communities/coaches don't understand the benefits of a system like that for the vast majority of programs. I feel like this is dipping their toe in the water of it to prove it is viable. One of my contentions is that pro/rel allows teams to be competitive against likewise teams (based on previous years). The "B" division essentially is that (except for that year). Now, would I call this specific group "state" champions, probably not, but that is the least of my concerns. If they are doing seeding, of course there is greater # of mismatches. That is why you are doing seeding, so that the #2 doesn't play the #1 seed in the first round. I don't think the goal is to get 64 teams per class into the playoffs, I think the goal is to show that we can make a competitive system based on MaxPreps rankings. Now, I do like the idea of taking the rural class as a whole and making it just the North and South and removing regions as a whole. That is something @DisabledAccount aka ColumbiaFan often promoted.

Hiring: DeSoto County - Cliff Lohrey (Story)

Cypress Creek (Orlando) - Ryan Mills (Twitter) Santa Fe Catholic (Lakeland) - Gabe Walker

Hiring: Oak Ridge (Orlando) - Anthony Smith Jr (per Team Twitter) Melbourne Central Catholic - Willie Tillman (per Space Coast Daily) Vierra (Melbourne) - Tony Gulla (per Space Coast Daily)

It was becoming hard to remember all the hirings and openings when they were on so many different posts. I think I have all the hirings/openings correct now. Hirings American Heritage (Delray Beach) - Jonathan King Andrew Jackson (Jacksonville) - Bobby Ramsay Arnold (Panama City Beach) - Jason Griffin Auburndale - Antonio Thomas Baldwin - Don Velvet Blance Ely (Pompano Beach) - Terrance McFadden Braden River (Bradenton) - Eric Sanders Calvalry Christian (Clearwater) - Wes Safford Carol City (Miami) - George Stubbs Celebration - Jed Ebersole Chamberlain (Tampa) - James Wilder Jr. Chiefland - Adam Gore Citrus (Inverness) - John Capel Crystal River - Bill Vonada Cypress Creek (Orlando) - Ryan Mills DeSoto County - Cliff Lohrey Dr. Krop (Miami) - Vernon Wilder Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens) - Willie Smith East River (Orlando) - Adam Chappell Eustis - Joe Burnett Fort Meade - Maurice Russell Freedom (Tampa) - Ron Perisee Glades Central (Belle Glade) - Omar Haugabook Godby (Tallahassee) - John Holston Golden Gate (Naples) - Nick Citro Graceville - Richard Koonce Hardee - Darren Bryan Hillard - Matt Yancy Innovation (Orlando) - Leroy Kinard Jackson (Miami) - Max Edwards Lake Howell (Winter Park) - Dazzie Morris Lake Placid - Jay Del Castillo Lake Region (Eagle Lake) - Jermaine King Lake Worth - Eric Lee Leesburg - Frank Scott Lemon Bay (Englewood) - Jason Mensing Leto (Tampa) - John Hurst Melbourne Central Catholic - Willie Tillman Northwestern (Miami) - Terry Bridgewater Oak Ridge (Orlando) - Anthony Smith Jr Pensacola - Wade Mckinney Pine Ridge (Deltona) - Greg Miller Plantation - Darell Strong Poinciana (Kissimmee) -Taron Mallard Ridgeview (Orange Park) - Marlin Smith Sandalwood (Jacksonville) - Brad Kessel Santa Fe Catholic (Lakeland) - Gabe Walker Sarasota - Anthony Campbell Southeast (Bradenton) - Curt Bradley Stanton Prep (Jacksonville) - Ryan Carter Tampa Catholic - Mike Gregory Taylor County - Jesse Braswell Vierra (Melbourne) - Tony Gulla Wesley Chapel - Bruce Patterson Wildwood - Lorenzo Fields Openings Belen Jesuit (Miami) Bozeman (Panama City) Celebration (Part 2) - Everglades Prep (Homestead) FAMU DRS (Tallahassee) Fernandina Beach Florida Christian (Miami) Gateway (Fort Myers) - Marlin Roberts? Maybe, I read the ad wrong and t was for middle school or assistants? Gulf Breeze Gulf Coast (Naples) Mainland (Daytona Beach) Miami Beach Newsome (Lithia) North Florida Christian (Tallahassee) North Marion Santa Fe (Alachua) South Miami University (Orlando) Wekiva (Apopka) Windermere Prep

Openings: Celebration High School (Again) Hirings: Braden River (Bradenton) - Eric Sanders (Article) East River (Orlando) - Adam Chappell (School Twitter) Eustis - Joe Burnett (Twitter) Glades Central (Belle Glade) - Omar Haugabook (Twitter) Godby - John Holston (Article) Leesburg - Frank Scott Article Leto (Tampa) - John Hurst (Twitter) Pine Ridge (Deltona) - Greg Miller (Article) Plantation - Darrell Strong (Twitter) Poinciana - Taron Mallard Sarasota - Anthony "Amp" Campbell (Article) Taylor County (Perry) - Jesse Braswell (Article)