Despite Belleview Middle School earning an A grade, Dion Gary, the former Belleview principal who is now at Forest High School, said life isn’t easy for his faculty and staff.
“We’re dealing with the $64 million budget cuts,” Gary said. “It just made working conditions a little tougher. We’ve increased class size by two students. Therefore, we don’t have to fund a certain teacher, so that will impact working conditions.”
His concerns arise as the school district faces a $64.3 million funding cut. Gary and other teaching professionals worry that this gap could cause some teachers who make Belleview special to leave in search of better financial opportunities.
Why does the district have a deficit?
According to Marion County Public Schools, the district began the 2025-2026 school year after hiring over 480 new teachers, with an additional 54 teachers in the process of being hired.
At the same time, school district leaders announced they must make up for a budget shortfall caused by the end of federal COVID relief, decreased state funding, and students using state-funded scholarships to attend private or charter schools.
At Forest High School, Gary points out that tight budgets and a competitive job market mean teachers are stretched thin, resulting in slightly larger classes. Principals dedicate more time to protecting the courses and support systems that help students stay on track.
“One of the main reasons teachers consider leaving is because they get a higher-paying job,” Gary said. “We’re competing with the job market. We’re competing with college-educated people, and they may have received different offers.”
Just across the county line from Forest’s north Ocala campus, Antonio Maldonado, Belleview Middle’s assistant principal of curriculum, said he believes the staff shortage in county schools is both practical and personal.
“Teachers leave for a variety of reasons. A lot of the ones I’ve noticed lately are mainly financial,” he said. “Most teachers don’t get into this profession for money. However, if they have a chance to earn more, they can do so and provide a better lifestyle for their families.”
Not all teachers’ exits are financial. Teaching has changed, educators say, with mounting student needs. “Kids … have more needs and demands. Their passion isn’t matching what the job requires,” Maldonado said. “This is a profession where you have to be fully invested, and if you’re not, it’s best to pick a different profession.”
And it’s not just teaching positions that are hard to fill. Maldonado said support staff — custodial, kitchen, paraprofessionals and maintenance — are more difficult to recruit and keep in a gig economy job market that offers more flexibility.
“Instead of being tied down to a job that’s not paying great, they can hustle and get two or three side jobs and make just as much and have the freedom… It’s definitely very competitive out there… and it is impacting us,” he said.
Title I, demographics — and why it matters in classrooms
Under Florida’s new grading scale, middle, high, and combined schools now require 64% of points to earn an A grade (and 57% to 63% to earn a B), a statewide framework change that provides context for Marion County’s results.
Title I is a federal program that sends extra funding to schools with higher percentages of low-income students so every child can meet state standards.
The mechanics are simple, and the impact is powerful. Title I dollars can pay for reading and math specialists, after-school tutoring, parent nights and targeted teacher training — exactly the supports Gary and Maldonado say are vital for helping their most challenging students: improving struggling readers and encouraging high achievers.
Title I dollars can stabilize classrooms and lift outcomes, but they also change how families choose where to live. Schools receiving stronger grades attract homebuyers, tighten inventory and, over time, push prices up. Educators like Maldonado said they see that feedback loop from the front row.
“Home prices increase because the better school grades you have in a community, the property value goes up,” Maldonado said. “State data show that, under the current scale, middle, high, and combination schools need 64% of points to earn an A; Belleview Middle is among eight Marion schools to achieve that mark this year as the district improved to a B.”
Forest High is not a Title I school, and that is a result of the makeup of the school’s student body. “There’s a big difference in the student population, and the students that come through the doors at Belleview and Forest are very different,” Gary emphasized.
Angel Rivera, a Belleview Middle School teacher and parent of Forest High students, said the priority is covering core classes and sustaining gains in reading.
“English and math — those are the critical areas students need to graduate,” he said. Rivera added that students with disabilities remain a countywide and statewide focus. “Across Florida, schools struggle to help students with disabilities achieve at higher levels. Those are areas of critical need.”
What’s next — and what would help
Administrators and teachers said these ideas are only feasible if they are integrated into policy and the budget — not just presented as one-time fixes. In practice, the School Board would adjust the salary schedule to include ongoing shortage-area supplements, including for ESE, Algebra I, biology, and ESOL. Then, it would fund them through a combination of state ESE categorical dollars, federal IDEA Part B, and, at eligible campuses, Title I — along with any savings from lower vendor substitute expenses.
“Those positions and hours can be paid from IDEA and Title I, supported by district-level behavior analysts/MTSS coaches,” Rivera said. “To supply the people, principals can convert strong paraprofessionals and long-term subs into paid teacher-apprenticeship slots, with tuition covered and guaranteed placement in the shortage areas.”
Those ideas match what state officials say is helping lower vacancy numbers, but the district’s budget challenge remains the unpredictable factor.
For Gary, the main idea is simple enough to put on a whiteboard. Forest’s strengths, he said, are “powerful reading achievement and a high graduation rate.” The goal now is to keep those strengths intact while ensuring that both “bottom core and top students” in reading and math receive what they need — even when resources are limited.
“We’re competing with the workforce,” he said. “But our kids still deserve the best we can give them.”