Broward Public Schools, teachers' union reach tentative agreement that calls for pay raise
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Administrators with Broward County Public Schools on Tuesday reached a tentative agreement with the Broward Teachers Union to immediately raise the pay for current and new teachers, officials said.
According to a written statement by the district, the new pact must still be ratified by current union members before being presented to the Broward County School Board for final approval.
"Our District is currently engaged in difficult funding conversations, but these base salary increases reflect the School Board's and my commitment to increasing the salary of all our educators," said schools Superintendent Dr. Peter B. Licata in the statement. "We're not yet where we want to be in compensating our employees, but I am thankful to the bargaining teams for arriving at this agreement, which will put more money in the pockets of our teachers."
"This is the beginning to moving all teachers' salaries to $100,000, as Allen Zeman has said time and again," said BTU President Anna
Fusco in the statement. "We felt a 7% raise would have moved us closer, but the District is certain they could only offer the 3.9% pot of money, which is equivalent to about $37 million. We expect that next year's negotiations will move us to Dr. Zeman's goal."
According to a news release from the school district, the tentative agreement provides the following base salary increases for eligible employees:
- Teachers on the grandfathered salary schedule will see a 3.65 percent increase.
- Teachers on the Pay for Performance schedule (based on job evaluation): 4.56 percent increase for teachers rated Highly Effective and 3.42 percent increase for teachers rated Effective.
- New teacher's starting salary increases to $50,266.
Broward teachers have been demanding a pay hike since at least last year.
One teacher, Cooper City Middle School teacher Mary Carr, told CBS News Miami last year that she and her colleagues had been struggling with South Florida's rapidly rising costs of food, utilities, housing and insurance but their pay had not kept pace.
"If inflation is going up why aren't our salaries," she asked.
According to a published report, the salary hikes, which would be retroactive to July 1, would be on top of the stipends that range between $500 and $12,000 annually they received in August.