St. Johns County superintendent shares hopes for district’s future ahead of retirement

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Superintendent Tim Forson is stepping away from the district after spending 36 years in St. Johns County schools. He’s spent the last seven in his job as superintendent.

Forson spoke with Action News Jax’s Finn Carlin about what his replacement will be walking into when he retires after the end of the school year. Among them are long-fought battles of rapid growth, overcrowded schools and efforts to boost teacher salaries.

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“A new leader, going forward in this, needs the understanding that growth management is an integral part of St. Johns County schools,” says superintendent Tim Forson.

In a recent presentation to the St. Johns County school board, the district said its student population size has doubled between 2003-2023. Last year, the district reported it had more than 51,000 students.

Action News Jax told you in July the county expects its total population to double by 2050, from 315,000 to more than 652,000 people. Forson says the growing pains from the new families coming in will likely be one of the new superintendent’s most significant challenges.

“If you start growing too fast, you don’t maintain the standard and the expectations of years’ passed,” Forson says.

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Over the next two years, the district will open a few new schools to help offset some of the growth. It’s opening a total of five K-8 schools through the fall of 2026. Action News Jax told you in August when the district opened two of those schools.

Another will open next fall and the last two will open in the fall of 2026.

St. Johns County voters just approved two other ways of helping the school district build more schools. On election day, we told you when both of the county’s ballot referendums passed, one to increase property taxes and one to continue the half-cent sales tax. The district says the money will be put toward helping new schools be built, bring on more teachers and raise starting teacher salaries.

“That’s personal commitments that residents make to say ‘I’m willing to invest my own money, my own dollar into schools, whether or not I have children here,’” says Forson.

The district recently shared some of its data on its struggles to compete with the average pay for teachers at nearby districts. This is what it shared last month about how its average teacher pay measures up to other local districts:

• Flagler County: $58,369 / year
• Duval County: $55,282 / year
• Putnam County: $55,000 / year
• St. Johns County: $53,484 / year

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Forson hopes the recently passed property tax increase will help the district become more competitive but says there won’t be an easy solution to handling its growth and the needs of its teachers.

“For us, growth has become an extension of what we do. In a lot of times, that may not be the case. But in St. Johns County, we know we’re going to have new families every year,” Forson says.

Forson won’t be part of the search for a new superintendent. The St. Johns County school board is meeting tomorrow to approve a contract with the Florida School Boards Association to take over the search.

Superintendent Forson’s last day will be June 30, 2025.

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