Phila. Public Schools Start without teachers in 99 classrooms

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150909_Unresolved_Pa__budget_looms_over_start_of_Philly_schools.html

Most of the article is about the financial stress caused by a delay of 3 months in counting in approving a State budget. The school districts are waiting on hundreds of millions in state funding. However, I was also struck by this part of the article:

"Not everything yesterday was smooth sailing, however. Some schools reported classrooms without teachers - 99 to be exact, according to district spokesman Fernando Gallard. He said the district hopes to fill the vacancies as soon as possible, either through long-term substitutes or additional hires."

In past years, I read that there was a problem that the school district's hiring process was so slow that by the time they made offers to new teachers in August, many had already accepted other jobs.