JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Members of the State Board of Education are considering ways to put more pressure on local teachers’ unions, amid delays in planned salary increases for teachers in some districts, including one in Northeast Florida.
The board Wednesday discussed efforts to distribute money approved last year by the Legislature.
The money is part of a multi-year effort to raise minimum teacher pay statewide to $47,500. That’s $7,000 more than what teachers were being paid four years ago, and some people would say that isn’t enough.
The Putnam County School District is one of three districts that hasn’t seen the increase yet.
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Department of Education data from 2022-23 states teachers’ average salary is about $50,000. Some teachers make more, some make less. It’s just over Florida’s average cost of living, which according to MIT, is $46,000.
The Board of Education members said some teachers desperately need this money.
“I continue to be frustrated by some districts who withhold these salary increases,” Ryan Petty, Vice Chair of the Board of Education, said.
In 2023, the Legislature approved historic funding to pay teachers more.
They had until October 1 to come up with a plan to submit to the department and then get the board an approved and ratified plan.
To this day, there are teachers in districts who haven’t touched that money.
Of 70 fully approved plans, the board is reviewing five. And three districts have completed negotiations. One of the three is the Putnam County School District.
“We actually had a tentative agreement with our union before October 1,” Rick Surrency, Putnam County School Superintendent said.
Putnam Superintendent Rick Surrency told the board Wednesday that teachers will see the raise on their April 15 paychecks.
Orange County School Board Chairwoman Teresa Jacobs said union negotiations have been difficult.
“We still need to be paying our teachers more,” Jacobs said. “We have too few entering the education field to begin with. We are losing teachers, so everything that delays this is unconscionable.”
Union leaders said the process of raising teachers’ pay is complicated and that experienced teachers should be paid more than new teachers. Lawmakers this month approved a proposed budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year that would provide an additional $200 million for teacher salary increases.
The Legislature has not formally sent the budget to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has veto power.
“I continue to be frustrated by some districts who withhold these salary increases and, in my view, go against the will and the intent of the Legislature in getting these raises to our teachers who desperately need it,” State Board of Education member Ryan Petty said Wednesday.
The associate superintendent for support services in Putnam said they were bargaining working conditions and salaries with the union. They recognize that’s going to have to change.
“But that will be my recommendation going forward. Let’s go ahead and move compensation to the front and not the back,” Associate Superintendent for Support Services Thomas Bolling said.
The board wants districts to come up with creative ways to get this money into teachers’ hands – as soon as possible.