Steve Shadley/KJZZ

Tucson Unified School District headquarters.

To help with its teacher shortage, the Tucson Unified School District is considering hiring virtual teachers for the coming school year.

Assistant superintendent Flori Huitt said there’s around 24 vacancies to fill, mostly for math and science teachers.

“The students are engaged because the teacher is livestreamed," Huitt said. "It’s not that they’re doing at-your-own-pace type of instruction. It’s live, online, with the teacher so they are engaged with the instruction, in the moment.”

Huitt clarified virtual teaching doesn’t mean remote learning. Teachers would be livestreamed into classrooms and students would be supervised by an in-classroom manager.