Teachers' union, Brevard school district agree on raises

County's teachers have to approve deal

VIERA, Fla. – Months of unsuccessful negotiation talks — marked by protests and picket lines — seemingly came to an end Thursday, when the union and district leaders agreed on raises for Brevard County teachers, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.

Although the district didn't put any extra money for recurring raises on the table, an additional $200 bonus for all teachers sold union leaders. The union and district negotiators were scheduled to go before a special magistrate to help settle the dispute next Tuesday, about three months after the union declared impasse. 

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"Given what the Legislature's been doing to funding, I don't know if happy is the right word, but I'm satisfied," union President Dan Bennett said after Thursday's meeting. "I'm satisfied that we got all we could for now, and I'm satisfied that we got our message across."

Under the tentative agreement, which still needs to be approved by the county's teachers, teachers who were rated "highly effective" on their latest evaluation will receive an $875 raise and those who were rated "effective" will get $600. Teachers who took sick leave and maternity leave, or were rated "needs improvement" will not see a raise. Teacher raises this year account for about $4.4 million of the district's overall budget. 

However, all teachers — there's about 4,500 of them — will also get a one-time $200 bonus. The additional bonus will cost the district about $1 million. 

The agreement follows years of modest raises and frozen salaries, including a 1.3 percent raise last year. 

Teacher raises are just one expense on the district's long list of 16 new projects, which will cost about $14 million. Reopening an elementary school, reviving the corridor busing system, developing a suicide-prevention program and hiring more social workers, literacy coaches and security officers are all on the list.

The teachers union has scrutinized the district's spending, arguing that the money should have gone to raises. 

The district's 790 non-union administrative employees, with the exception of the superintendent and school board, will also get the bonus. That's on top of the 1.5 raise the school board approved for them in December. 

The district said it will also revisit negotiations with the support staff union, which rejected a 1.5 raise offer despite agreement between the district and the union negotiator. 

The union and district leaders returned to the table Thursday for the first time since some teachers launched a "work the contract" campaign. All of January, teachers refused to work extra hours and duties not outlined in their contract to protest the district's low raise offers, meaning no meetings or parent conferences outside normal work hours and no free tutoring or grading papers at home. 

Tensions over negotiations hit a high last week, when FLORIDA TODAY learned the superintendent got his second raise of the school year. Desmond Blackburn received the second raise because of a recent change in his contract that tied his raises to those of non-union administrators. He received an initial 5 percent raise over the summer, bumping his salary from $210,000 to $220,500, keeping him one of the top 10 highest-paid superintendents in Florida. 

Soon after Florida Today reported his second raise, Blackburn announced he would donate the money, about $3,300, to the Supply Zone, a shop in Cocoa that provides free school supplies to teachers. 

The union responded, saying it would also donate $3,300 to the Supply Zone, if the district called them back to the negotiating table and found an extra $200 in its budget for all teachers. The union said the $3,300 is about the money it would spend to go before a special magistrate. 

When negotiation talks kicked off in September, the district initially offered a 1 percent raise that would have given $516 to "highly effective" teachers and $422 to "effective teachers. Union leaders insisted the school district give teachers the same 5 percent raise Blackburn received over the summer — his first since taking the job in 2015.

However, BPS chief financial officer said the district could not afford to give teachers a 5 percent raise without laying off employees. 

"I think teachers will appreciate the hard work we put in to increase that offer as much as we did," said Bennett. "We more than doubled that. We're not going to listen when they say that’s all the money they have."

 


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