{"id":365777,"date":"2026-08-08T00:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365777\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:36:10","slug":"101-first-year-teachers-join-pinellas-county-schools-before-classes-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365777\/","title":{"rendered":"101 first-year teachers join Pinellas County Schools before classes resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"First-year \"First-year First-year teacher prepares for school year<\/a> <\/p>\n

Pinellas County Schools welcomed 276 newly hired educators this week as staff returned to classrooms to finalize preparations for students returning to school on Tuesday. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Pinellas County Schools welcomed 276 newly hired educators this week as staff returned to classrooms to finalize preparations for students returning to school on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinellas teacher hiring updates <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

District officials hired 276 new teachers across Pinellas County Schools ahead of the upcoming academic year. Among those hired are 101 first-year educators who completed college internships to gain hands-on classroom experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district currently has 30 remaining instructional vacancies out of nearly 5,800 total positions. Local staff returned to school buildings this week to prepare classrooms before students arrive on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"\" Middle school teaching passion <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Among the district’s 276 teachers hired this year is Courtney Bennett, a first-year educator putting the final touches on her classroom at Tyrone Middle School<\/a> ahead of Tuesday’s start date. She\u2019s one of 101 first-year teachers PCS hired for this school year.<\/p>\n

All the first-year teachers have completed internships with host teachers in college for classroom experience.<\/p>\n

Bennett will be teaching sixth and seventh grade math, an age group and subject area she embraces despite common stigmas surrounding them. She noted that middle school is a pivotal period of growth for young students.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“They’re going through so many different transitions, be it socially, emotionally, physically, all of the above,” she said. “They need support from people who genuinely care about them, and I feel that I do genuinely care about every single person that’s going to come through my door.”<\/p>\n

Family legacy in education <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Teaching runs deep in Bennett’s family. Her mother, father and brother all work in education, each having launched their careers within Pinellas County Schools. Her brother now teaches in neighboring Manatee County.<\/p>\n

“Elementary schoolers are super cute,” Bennett said. “They’re fun, but I don’t know, there’s just something about middle school, and if I’m being honest, high school kind of scares me. I really think I have a niche in middle school education, and I think that I’m just really excited for this next chapter.”<\/p>\n

School year start details <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Students in Pinellas County return to class on Tuesday, August 11.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story is from Courtney Bennett and Pinellas County Schools officials.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a>Education<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First-year teacher prepares for school year Pinellas County Schools welcomed 276 newly hired educators this week as staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[113,47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-365777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-education","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}