TAMPA, Fla. — The countdown is officially on to the first day of school, and Hillsborough County Public Schools has extra reason to be excited. They had nearly 40 schools go up in grade level over the past year.
“It seems like it just gets more and more exciting every year, I don’t know what that is but it’s just awesome,” said Superintendent Van Ayres about the first day of school.
Ayres, a product of Hillsborough County Public Schools, said this is the best shape the district has been in since he took the reins as superintendent four years ago.
“So, this is the first time we have been an A-rated school district in over a decade,” said Ayres. “We are the largest employer in the county so to get an A grade like that, all 23,000 employees that really rally together, and to get this achievement from the state of Florida is a big deal.”
Superintendent Ayres said just a few years ago they had a teacher shortage of around 700; that number is now down to 200.
“We’re a large school district, so we have 233 schools, so when you get that vacancy number around 200 or less, that’s very manageable, so we are ready to go,” said Ayres. "For the first time ever we have no schools rated D or F in our lower performing schools, so they are all rated A,B or C by the state of Florida.”
Superintendent Ayres only expects those grades to continue to climb with the addition of free full-day Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten throughout the district.
“Having students ready for kindergarten is always our biggest hurdle, right? How do we have as many students, when they enter that first day of kindergarten, ready to go,” said Ayres. “Previous years, the half day was funded by the state of Florida; the other half families would have to pick that up.”
He said it’s also going to be a big year for field trips.
“Instead of just 5th, 6th and 8th grade with field trips, now it’s kindergarten through 8th grade, everybody will get an experience outside of these classroom walls, they will be able to get out into our community and experience something that they may not have experienced before,” said Ayres.
The district isn’t just making additions, but also subtractions, starting with screen time.
“The digital programs that we used to use in K-2nd grade, where we used to say you are going to be on for 45 minutes a week, we have eliminated that, this really puts instruction back into the hands of our teachers,” said Ayres. “We know they do an amazing job; we trust them best, and we are getting a lot of positive feedback from our families too around kindergarten through second grade, hands-on.”
Superintendent Ayres also hopes to reduce the number of student absentee days, and he’s looking for parents' help.
“That consistency from day one to day 180 it’s important and being in school every day is a must,” said Ayers.
Being the superintendent of the seventh largest school district in the country comes with a lot of responsibility but Ayers said he never feels overwhelmed.
“We have great folks who work in our district who care about their community; that’s what makes it easy for me to sleep at night and rest because we know we have great people who do great things for kids every day,” said Ayers.
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