HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — A Hernando County school that pink-slipped all of its teachers last month, now has nearly all of those positions filled.
Moton Elementary has been a failing school in Hernando County for years.
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"The rating of the school has been horrible since I went here," said mother Danitra Hicks
Hicks says she was so fed up with the school that she pulled her daughter out to homeschool her after she found out her child was being badly bullied and no one contacted her.
"I blame the teachers and the administration at Moton Elementary," said Hicks.
Hicks, who attended Moton as a child says there are some good teachers at Moton, but she felt something needed to change.
"To get the bad ones out, I feel like they needed to pink slip them or close the school," said Hicks.
But Vince La Borante, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association says the way the school district pink-slipped all of those teachers was in violation of their contracts.
"Not a good move," said La Borante.
The HCTA filed a grievance with the school district and came to an agreement.
"We basically proposed some resolutions as to how we could fix the problem," said La Borante.
The tenured teachers who were to be reassigned to a school, now have choices between three schools in the district.
Fourteen of the pink slipped teachers have been rehired at Moton. Eleven were hired internally within the school district and 11 more hired externally. The district says they hope to have the rest of the positions filled this month.
We asked Hicks if she planned to bring her daughter back to Moton next year.
"Once I find out where the teachers are coming from and do a background checks, yes," said Hicks.
