As students and teachers leave for the summer on the last day of school, a few faces will not be returning though the doors when August rolls around.

“I feel OK about the amount of teachers leaving next year,” Principal Chris Mayfield said. “When you’re on a high school campus that has a lot of staff, every year you are going to have teachers where something in their life changes, like their spouse taking a job in another state or they get another opportunity comes up and they take that.”

New plans for some nine teachers have lead them to not be returning for the 2016-2017 new year.

“I decided to leave because I had a great opportunity to get my Masters degree at the University of Georgia and I was offered a full ride,” choir teacher Christopher Mason said. “I will be able to study and teach there at the same time. So even though I am leaving teaching here, I am still going to be able to keep teaching and become a better teacher.”

Different opportunities arose for staff who have decided to not return.

“I have been at this job for six years and my students were here, my personal students, but my daughter graduated last year,” front desk receptionist Rhonda Lloyd said. “I am actually a teacher and I want to get back into the classroom. So I got a teaching job teaching third grade. It is not in the district. It is a small charter school which is kind of like a private school.”

In high schools, this amount of teachers leaving is typically common.

“We are always going to have a turnover in that way and really this year is the same as most years,” Mayfield said.

For the upcoming school year, administration is doing what they can to make sure the fill the spots with the best choices.

“The teachers right now, the ones that have shared that they have new opportunities, what is nice is we know that early in the year and it gives us an opportunity to fill those spots with the best possible candidates,” Mayfield said. “Certainly there are different teaching areas that are harder to fill than others.”