Students at Steinbrenner High School in Lutz walked back into classrooms Monday, Aug. 10, joining more than 200,000 Hillsborough County students for the first day of a school year the district calls its strongest in over a decade.
For Lutz families, the numbers are concrete: teacher vacancies across Hillsborough County Public Schools have dropped to roughly 200, down from nearly 700 three years ago, according to Superintendent Van Ayres. With more than 250 school sites, that works out to less than one unfilled teaching position per campus.
The gap is closing fast.
"That number now is right at 200. So, 200 may sound like a lot, but we have over 250 sites, so that's less than one per school," Ayres told WFLA on the first day of school. "We're doing an incredible job."
Ayres credited the November 2024 property tax referendum approved by Hillsborough voters for the staffing turnaround. The millage funds teacher salaries directly, and district officials told WUSF in August 2025 that the referendum made recruiting competitive. Vacancies stood at about 430 at the start of the 2025-26 year; by Monday they had fallen to roughly 200. The district now reports 13,000 teachers and nearly 98% of positions filled.
What's different for Lutz elementary students
Younger students in Steinbrenner's feeder schools, including McKitrick Elementary, Schwarzkopf Elementary, Lutz K-8 and Maniscalco K-8, are starting the year without digital screens in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms. Ayres said the shift emphasizes hands-on learning and more direct interaction between students and teachers.
The district is also launching a free full-day Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten program, expanding access for four-year-olds across the county.
A-grade momentum
Hillsborough earned its first A district grade in more than a decade heading into this school year, as we reported Aug. 5. Steinbrenner High has maintained its own A rating for 15 consecutive years.
Ayres posted on X the morning of Aug. 10 that he was visiting Stowers Elementary to kick off the year with media partners. Two days earlier, HCPS board members and staff had volunteered at the Bullard Family Foundation's Back to School Bash, where more than 30,000 backpacks were distributed to students.
Steinbrenner held its open house Aug. 5 for families to tour the campus and meet teachers. The school's 15-year A streak now carries into a district that, for the first time in years, can match it.
