Are South Florida teachers paid enough to live comfortably?

She cheerily grabs her bag and badge, enthusiastically greeting the many people she passes by name as she strolls into the front office.

“You ready for a great school year?” Hiller asks with gusto.

For her, overseeing the math curriculum for the district she grew up in is a dream come true, and she’s equally thankful she can afford to live in the same county she works in. It’s part of the reason she’s not going anywhere.

“It’s funny, I’m a math person. [my commute] used to take nine minutes. Now it takes 12,” Hiller said, chuckling.

“It is a challenge. There’s no way you can say it’s not. The cost of housing everywhere on the Treasure Coast continues to rise,” said Dr. David Moore, the superintendent of School District of Indian River County.

Moore said that while the majority of his teachers live in the county, some have a much farther commute because of the cost of living.

It’s an issue front and center for many school districts now gearing up for another school year: the cost of living impacting the ability to recruit and retain quality teachers.

In Indian River County, this year’s starting teacher salary is just under $49,000.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, a single person without children living in Indian River County needs to make $41,572 just to pay for the basics like groceries, housing, transportation, and health care.

To live comfortably, go ahead and double that income to more than $93,000. That’s per a Smart Asset study which uses the 50-30-20 rule. That is, dedicating 50% of your salary to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings.

“Oh, absolutely,” Moore answered.

It’s a struggle for Martin County Superintendent Michael Maine, too.

The district just negotiated a 3.1% raise, bumping teachers to just under $51,000, which is the highest of all Treasure Coast districts.

However, that’s not even close to the $77,742 salary MIT’s calculator shows a teacher with just one child would need to survive.

“For us, it has been a problem. And so the only thing we can do is to continue to commit to raising salaries every year to try to offset some of that,” Maine said.

Recent data from the Martin County School District shows that of the district’s 1,200 teachers, 762, or 64%, commute from out of county.

Maine said the hardest to recruit have been paraprofessionals, which include teacher aids, support staff, and special education professionals.

“We just can’t pay them what outside businesses pay them,” Maine said.

It’s an issue across the state of Florida, too.

A recent study from the National Center for Education Statistics published in April showed K-12 teachers in Florida were the lowest paid in the country.

Data from the Florida Education Association, Florida’s largest teachers’ labor union, shows that as of January, there were 7,553 teacher and support staff openings statewide.

Of school districts in our area, Palm Beach County’s teacher vacancy rate is about 2.2%, with 250 openings.

Martin County had a vacancy rate of 1.9%, and Indian River, with 11 openings, had a vacancy rate of just under 1%.

“We need to always figure out ways to pay our teachers as much as we can. But at the end of the day, we also want people to look forward to going to work,” Moore said.

Moore added that Indian River County schools just negotiated another salary agreement and is hoping to raise wages again.

Maine said that, in addition to reaching the tentative 3.1% salary increase, the district is also negotiating health insurance and other salary supplements to stay competitive.