“…both resigned over the same issue: core systematic issues with district – and state – wide regulations.”

  Gulf Breeze High School used to hold high-value jobs locally, but that is in the past. Both long-standing and new teachers recognize this and are resigning at a pace we have not seen before.

   GBHS used to have a seven-period weekday, with one period used as a break for both students and teachers. This allowed students to relax and regain mental strength, but more importantly, it allowed teachers to plan their classes. With a six-period school day, teach-ers are instructed to use the morning to plan, despite this being structurally difficult.

   “The full 6-out-of-6 workload that is placed on both students and teachers is not ideal conditions,” stated Stephanie Duffy, who has significant longevity teaching at GBHS. “The morning planning is not a planning period; my morning plan time is spent helping students, dealing with technology demands, and meeting with my club.”

   According to Duffy, she attempted to resolve the issue with Santa Rosa County officials. The response: A 7-period day is not something that budget cuts have allowed for.

   And for teachers, this causes the imbalance of work and life to become a very real issue. “My planning and grading are done at home, not at school,” Duffy said. “Witnessing my stress and extra workload, my husband called human resources and researched if going part time could be an option without hurting my retirement.”

   Many, like Duffy, still performed well in the classroom and continued to achieve greatness. However, not every teacher is able to adapt, creating room for imbalanced teaching.

   A teacher who has recently resigned pointed out that these systematic issues with scheduling could influence some staff members to have poorer instruction quality. According to him, teachers who take shortcuts in instruction don’t have the consequences to counteract the frequency of the shortcomings.

   “There’s a lack of visibility; no one sees what [teachers] are doing.” He pointed out that this is not the school’s fault, but rather, and issue with school systems in general. However, it’s because of this systematic issue that “there’s no reward system for being outstanding.”

   Duffy has stepped down to part time, while the latter teacher has entirely resigned. While both have done so for different reasons, both resigned over the same issue: core systematic issues with district- and state-wide regulations.

   Santa Rosa County School Board has approved numerous budget cuts for a variety of programs, assets and human resources over the past few years. These cuts have prevented many positive changes to the school system, such as a 7-day school schedule and relatively good teacher pay.

   An increase in the budget – as well as more appropriate allocation of the budget expenditures – can potentially calm the significant resignation rate and shortage of school instructors.

   It seems that all school systems could possibly suffer from so many issues, such as these and more, due to a supposed lack of funding. It might be better to spend our tax dollars on school systems to improve these conditions.

   Constant budget cuts to the school system are detrimental, and school officials are responsible for pushing for higher budget proposals to guarantee that school can be a better place for both teachers and students.