Union: Non-renewal of teacher positions will affect classrooms
The School District of Lee County has issued 457 staff non-renewals, including 275 teacher positions, citing budgetary reasons.
Teacher advocates are not happy, saying cuts affect families and classrooms.
“Every position that is non-renewed is a person with a family and the overall morale of teachers at this point is at an all-time low, and they don’t understand how the district can spend whatever they want on their projects, no matter the cost, but the front-line people need to learn to do with less,” Teachers Association of Lee County President Kevin Daly said.
In fiscal year 2026, 275 teachers were non-renewals, 381 were instructional resignations, non-renewals for performance/certification, and allow for contracts to expire, while 26 were due to retirements.
Daly said the impact is definitely larger class sizes and fewer opportunities.
TALC stated that “every position inside a school contributes to student successes and school stability, including teachers, paraprofessional, counselors, MTSS specialist, ESOL support staff, front office employees, custodians, cafeteria workers, groundskeepers and intervention staff.”
“They may say they aren’t cutting the arts, but if you cut the art teacher who will be there to provide the art opportunities for the students?” he said. “The real test will be in August when school starts again, and we get the data on class size and programs.”
According to the district, 96% of the workforce will be maintained in the 2026-27 school year. The district stated that the natural attrition of teachers separating from the district is the lowest in at least six years.
In fiscal year 2023, natural attrition accounted for 924 teachers that separated from the district, which includes retirements, resignations, performance, and certificate-related departures.
The district expects some of the non-renewed positions to be preserved or reallocated in the coming weeks, due to the natural attrition of employees transitioning out of the district, as well as positions eliminated one school being available at another.
There have already been 122 vacant teaching positions identified for the 2026-27 school year. The number of vacant teaching positions a year ago was 575.
The budget realignment is partially due to declining enrollment, almost 2,000 students in the district. According to the district, a net loss of nearly 2,000 students is equivalent to two 1,000 student schools that are no longer needed from a staffing perspective.
Other contributing factors to the budget realignment cited are lower birth rates, rising costs for good and services, and legacy spending — historical automatic rollover budgeting practices.
“I always say that everyone has an interest in the best public schools even if they don’t have students in the buildings, as the graduates for the LCSD are the people who are the employees of the businesses in the community,” Daly said.
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