At a recent special meeting, the Bethlehem Area School District approved hiring 23 teachers for the upcoming school year. About a dozen additional positions will be voted on at the board's next meeting Aug. 17.

The majority of the new hires are for the elementary schools, but not for the reason most would consider. Sure, the school district has increased kindergarten and is now offering full-day classes in all of its elementary schools. But Jack Silva, assistant superintendent and chief academic officer, said there are many reasons why the school district has so many positions to fill.

Silva explained that there has been a lot of internal movement of teachers in the schools. Some teachers moved to a different level, while others moved to a different grade, he said. For instance, some of the current teachers moved to those kindergarten positions, which left openings to fill in other grades. On top of that, the district had eight teachers and six staff people resign or retire.

"We've had a lot of relocations this summer," Silva said.

The resignations came as a surprise to the district, some of them pretty late in the summer. But the district has been able to hire many good teachers and several young ones, too, he said. The last of the new hires will be finalized soon.

Most of these positions will pay about $47,000 for elementary school teachers with a bachelor's degree. Teachers with a master's degree will earn about $53,000, according to the district's meeting agenda.

As far as if the number of new hires seems high, Silva doesn't think so. It's merely a matter of math.

"The school district has about 1,000 teachers. Even if 1 percent of the teachers retire, that's 10 teachers," he said.

The district typically retains about 99 percent of its teachers, Silva added.