Schools like SPJC teacher proposal

Faced with a shortage of teachers, Pinellas board members say a four-year degree program at the college will help.

By KELLY RYAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 13, 2001

SEMINOLE -- Pinellas School Board members on Monday endorsed a proposal that would allow St. Petersburg Junior College to begin offering four-year teaching degrees as soon as next year.

At a joint meeting with SPJC's board of trustees, School Board members and Superintendent Howard Hinesley said they hope the convenience of a local four-year program will help lure "the best and the brightest" into teaching.

"It just might be a significant cure for you all," SPJC President Carl Kuttler told board members.

State Sen. Don Sullivan, R-Largo, is pushing the SPJC changes, which will require Legislative approval. Kuttler hopes that the School Board's vote Monday to support the bachelor's degree program will help ease the bill's passage.

Under the proposal, SPJC's name would be changed to St. Petersburg College and University Center. The Tarpon Springs campus would be home to four-year degree programs in teaching, nursing and other disciplines.

SPJC and public school officials said such a program would help Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties make headway in the fight to recruit and retain teachers during a national shortage. The first students would enroll in fall 2002.

Over the next 10 years, the state will need to hire about 160,000 teachers; Pinellas will need about 5 percent of that, or 8,000.

Last year, Pinellas hired 900 teachers but still started the school year with several dozen openings. Almost three-quarters of the teachers came from out of state.

The goal of the program is not just to lure recent high school graduates, but to make four-year degrees accessible to people interested in changing careers. District officials also hope that school volunteers, aides and others would return to school to become full-time teachers.

School Board member Jane Gallucci applauded the SPJC proposal, saying that the state's public universities are not as aggressively seeking a solution.

"They have nothing in their five-year plans that are going to address this problem," said Gallucci, who also is president of the Florida School Boards Association. "The big counties all face the same teacher shortage."

At Monday morning's meeting at Seminole Community Library, Hinesley said he will explore the possibility of offering scholarships to Pinellas public school graduates who attend the four-year program and agree to return to the area to teach.

He also said he would consider offering those students advance contracts, assuring that they would have jobs as long as they successfully complete the program at SPJC. Pasco schools Superintendent John Long has announced similar initiatives.

"What Howard doesn't want to hire, John Long has said he will hire," Kuttler said of the program's graduates.

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