NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – A Nassau County mother said a pattern of teacher resignations at Wildlight Elementary School has disrupted her son’s kindergarten year and appears to stretch back several years.
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Kristin Torres said her son’s first kindergarten teacher resigned just before Thanksgiving break. The class was dispersed among other kindergarten rooms, she said, and the teacher who took over the class resigned just before the Christmas break.
“I’m just a mom, but I just know there is a problem,” Torres said. “If we don’t acknowledge that there’s a problem, then we’re not going to do anything to address it.”
Torres said she filed public-records requests and found what she described as a multi-year pattern of resignations at the school. She said the district has not adequately addressed the situation.
News4JAX contacted the Nassau Teachers Association and met Torres with the union president, who said he had not previously been aware of her concerns.
“A lot of this stuff blindsides me as well, even though I’m here every day,” Chris Pagel, president of the Nassau Teachers Association and a 35-year veteran teacher said. “Whenever a teacher leaves, even if it’s one during the year, I’m like, why?”
Pagel said he plans to review the data and meet with district officials to determine whether the resignations at Wildlight represent a localized problem or a districtwide issue.
“I will be looking into it and crunching numbers and trying to get a good handle on it and then probably have some meetings with Dr. Burns and say, OK, how are we going to fix this?” Pagel said.
School district officials did not respond to requests for comment from News4JAX.