BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Broward County School Board held a news conference with the county’s teacher’s union Tuesday following the agreements that were made including base salary increases.
After about seven months of negotiations, more than 84 percent of the membership in the Teachers’ Union of Broward County voted in favor of a Broward Teachers contract agreement.
The Broward County School Board voted 6-3 in favor of base salary increases. The starting salary for teachers is now $50,226.
On average, teachers will now receive an 11% increase per teacher in total compensation.
Officials confirmed that Broward teachers on a grandfathered teacher’s schedule will receive a 3.65 percent increase.
Teachers on performance-based schedules will also receive between a 3.42 and 4.56% increase.
Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco told Local 10 News because of the housing crisis, many others have to take on other jobs just to survive.
“Our teachers and all of our employees that show up every day under all types of conditions, schools with measles, schools with mold, schools with broken air conditioning, bomb threats that happen that put our teachers and students in three-hour outside conditions yesterday, still walk in the building. That is commitment and they should be compensated,” said Fusco.
“This raise increases the base salary for our teachers who are the backbone of our organization,” said Broward School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff.
Also approved in the agreement preserves teacher planning and grading time while giving more instructional time to students.
School officials told Local 10 News the teacher’s increases are in addition to the referendum supplements.
There has been more than $175 million invested in teacher compensation.
“In theory, it’s what we wanna do for our teachers. It’s what we wanna do for all our staff,” said Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata.
Licata says the district has a one percent teacher vacancy, but there are concerns over the sustainability of the funding given federal funding of about $19.6 million will expire in September.
“It’s very scary considering lowering enrollment, facilities that are in need of repair and making sure that we compensate our staff so teaching actually gets done,” he added. “This makes us incredibly competitive with our neighbors.”
The school board is also looking at other incentives that will keep teachers from leaving.
“They work after hours, they work long hours, they work weekends, said Fusco.