- Alachua County School Board approved a five-year contract with Unlimited Instruction to recruit and support new teachers for ACPS.
- Unlimited Instruction will recruit candidates within 45 miles, who must have a bachelor’s degree and be eligible for a temporary teaching certificate.
- ACPS will pay UI $67.57 hourly per instructor while UI pays instructors $29 to $33 and covers certification classes and exams.
On Tuesday, the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) approved a five-year contract with staffing firm Unlimited Instruction (UI) to recruit and support new teachers in Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS).
“Our district needs more than a short-term response to teacher vacancies,” Deborah Terry, ACPS’s assistant superintendent for human resources, said while addressing the board. “We need a sustainable pathway that brings qualified people into our classrooms and prepares them to become successful, long-term ACPS employees and educators.”
In partnering with ACPS, UI will recruit candidates within 45 miles of district schools. Robert Belous, with UI, was present at the meeting and noted that the firm has “50 dedicated recruiters” who will focus on finding candidates for ACPS.
Terry said the candidates must have a bachelor’s degree and are eligible for a temporary teaching certificate.
“The intended outcome is that after a successful initial year, these instructors will be prepared to transition into regular district employment,” she said.
Each UI instructor “completes a new teacher academy focused on practical skills, professional expectations and classroom readiness needed for immediate success,” Terry said, adding that this is done before the educator enters the classroom.
“Then, during the year, educators receive dedicated instructional mentoring and coaching, regular performance feedback and classroom support from experienced educators employed by UI,” she said. “They have a 10-to-1 instructor-to-mentor ratio that allows for individual guidance rather than occasional check-ins.”
Terry said every UI educator will also “complete 35 hours of additional professional learning throughout the year,” on top of the necessary district training.
UI pays for employment clearances and screening activities that include background checks, drug screenings, fingerprinting and reference checks, according to Terry. However, ACPS retains oversight, “and UI instructors will be held to the same applicable standards expected by district employees,” she said.
ACPS will pay UI $67.57 per hour for each instructor.
“That’s based on a 7.5-hour workday, and we will only be charged for the days and hours that they actually work,” Terry said.
Belous said UI pays instructors anywhere from $29 to $33 an hour.
He also confirmed that UI educators will have to be prepared to take their official certification exam in one year from when they come to ACPS. UI will also pay for the certification classes and exam, Belous said.
Board member Tina Certain, who requested to pull the contract with UI from the consent agenda into an action item, made a motion to move with staff recommendation, but for the initial contract period to be for two years instead of five, with a renewal of one year and the 30-day cancellation clause, as stated in the agreement.
“I wish that the district would hire professional people to support our employees in a manner so that we didn’t have to do this outside contract,” she said. “That we would invest in the infrastructure in our organization so that we didn’t have to do that, and we could kind of boost ourselves up. That’s why I don’t want a five-year plan, because I figure if we’re going to pay substantially more or pay more for something, we should try to invest that in here [the district] so that we can address it long term, not just put the band-aid on there.”
Board Chair Thomas Vu said he would prefer that the contract stay at five years, as originally presented. He reasoned that the SBAC has the power to terminate it.
“If we’re unhappy in a year, we can always leave and renegotiate terms, or go find a competitor, or go someplace else,” Vu said.
After some further discussion, board member Janine Plavac amended Certain’s motion to have the contract go for five years instead of two years from Aug. 5, 2026, to Aug. 4, 2031. The amended motion was approved 3-1, with Vice Chair Leanetta McNealy absent from the meeting and Certain in dissent.
Board member Sarah Rockwell made a separate motion to have the legal team and Interim Superintendent Kamela Patton create a policy tying the hourly long-term sub pay to the hourly rate of a first-year teacher.
According to Terry, a starting teacher in ACPS – salary alone – makes $33.58 an hour.
“I’ve been saying this to Dr. Patton for about a year now that we really need to raise up our long-term subs to the same hourly rate as a first-year teacher because they are doing the same work as a teacher,” Rockwell said. “They are planning, they’re attending IEP (individualized education program) meetings, they’re calling parents, they’re putting in grades, they’re doing all of the things.”
Vu added that the long-term subs don’t get holiday pay or benefits.
Terry said earlier in the meeting that the district increased the pay for long-term subs at the school improvement (SI) schools last year to match what a starting teacher in the district with no experience would make. She noted that ACPS did not up the pay for long-term subs at all the other schools.
Rockwell’s motion was approved unanimously by the board.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.