ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A spokesperson for Orange County Public Schools has confirmed to News 6 that hundreds of teachers have received letters stating they won’t be returning to their current positions next year, as the district deals with a drop in enrollment and budget cuts.

As of Tuesday, April 29, OCPS said 811 teachers had received non-reappointment letters, which means their contracts will not be renewed beyond their current term.

Reaction on social media was swift, especially in the Facebook group “Make our OCPS Teachers a Top Priority,” where several anonymous posts were made in April about positions being “cut” and strains on the district’s budget due to a loss of students.

Our News 6 team spoke with OCPS Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat and asked him to explain what’s really going on from the district’s perspective.

“I mean, certainly it’s concerning,” said Howat. “The non-reappointment process happens every year and it certainly causes some concern, anxiety amongst our teachers and understandably.”

Howat explained that the non-reappointment process is something the district goes through annually as adjustments are made based on enrollment, and they figure out how many teachers they need for how many students they need.

During the 2024 school year, Howat said there were 960 non-reappointments, 149 more than this year.

“So, year over year, there were less non-reappointments,” said Howat. “And almost half of those non-appointments are temporary contracts. A lot of them are filling in for, say, a long-term leave type situation where a teacher’s out on maternity leave or is having surgery, and so those temporary contract teachers would be non-reappointed anyway.”

The district provided even more context in an email to our News 6 team Thursday afternoon. They say 374 of the non-reappointments this year are in fact temporary teachers who were hired to cover for long-term leave (maternity/FMLA).

“It’s something that really does take place every year. It’s part of our yearly budget cycle and process when it comes to the reappointment or non-reappointment process. It’s just this year, it’s been, I think there’s a little bit more of a magnifying glass on it because of what’s happening both at the federal and state level when it comes to funding and it comes to enrollment numbers,” said Howat.

In April, News 6 reported that district leaders project enrollment to be down by more than 3,000 students this year with a loss of around $28 million. They cite changing demographics and the expansion of state-funded Family Empowerment Scholarships — which allow students to attend private schools at public expense — as major contributing factors .

Clinton McCracken, the president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, said the anticipated under-enrollment is a “direct consequence of the state’s reckless expansion of school vouchers” in a post on Facebook. McCracken also said this about the teachers now left in limbo with concerns about their families and the future.

“These are educators who have dedicated their lives to serving our children, now tossed aside with cold, impersonal letters, no acknowledgment of their sacrifice, and no support for what comes next,” McCracken said.

Howat said the district hosted a virtual job fair Wednesday just for those teachers that received non-reappointment letters and will be hosting more over the next few weeks.

“It gave them an opportunity to interview with principals who are in need of positions at every level. And so, we’ll continue to do that in order to ensure that all of our vacancies are filled for next year,” said Howat. “We do want to make sure that we’re clear that we do want to focus on those teachers first that were non-reappointed.”

According to OCPS, the projected number of vacancies for the 2025-26 school year is between 450 and 500. A spokesperson said that number is “fluid and can change with additional retirements or resignations.”

Howat said as the school board discusses the budget this month, they will consider the loss of students and dollars from enrollment, as well as the loss of federal funds that they received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re pushing right now really hard for kindergarten and voluntary pre-K registrations in order to try to ensure that parents aren’t waiting to enroll their children because the decisions on teachers are being made now,” said Howat. ”So, the more parents that are enrolling their children early ensures us that we can start to finalize those numbers at the school level.”

The school board also recently approved a student recruitment proposal that would allow a private vendor to reach out to families who have left the district for charter, private, or homeschool options and encourage them to re-enroll. They will pay a consultant nearly $1,000 per student to help bring families back to traditional public schools.

When asked about criticism the district has received, Howat encouraged people to look at the contract.

“The contract is a performance-based contract. So, the vendor, the contractor, would only get paid for every student they bring back to Orange County Public Schools. A student generates $8,950 as a student. And, when they’re brought back, the consultant would get $935. So, the district would net over $8,000 per student. So, if you had a thousand students, that would be able to pay for quite a few teachers,” said Howat. “That is really an initiative to go out and to bring back those students, those 3,100 students that we’re potentially losing, and ensure that we are shoring up our student population so that we can save teacher positions.”