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Left to Right, Orange County Public School Members Maria Salamanca; and Alicia Farrant seen at a Sept. 30 meeting. On Tuesday, Salamanca said she was skeptical that adding language to the district’s tax referendum to increase teacher pay would be effective, and said she worried it could take money from other school programs.

Orange school board, union clash over using tax money for teacher raises

Orlando Sentinel | By Steven Walker |  

The Orange County School Board clashed with the district’s teachers union Tuesday evening over a proposed addition to the special schools tax it again wants voters to approve.

The union urged the board to add “increasing teacher pay” to the language of its tax referendum, which brings in about $230 million annually to help pay for teacher salaries, academic and athletic programs and field trips.

But most board members were not receptive, saying the language wouldn’t change the amount of money available for teacher raises, which is dependent on state funding, and they didn’t want to take any action without the superintendent and board’s chair, who were both absent.

The board’s failure to embrace adding the language was met with disapproval and jeers from the union members in attendance.

The school board will meet again on May 19 to discuss the language of the special tax referendum, which the board wants to appear on the November ballot.

Orange County voters have overwhelmingly approved the referendum every four years since it was first on the ballot in 2010.

If they vote for it again, Orange County Public Schools expects to collect about $261 million each year for the next four years from the one-mill tax, according to the ballot language, which represents a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value.

School officials say continuing the tax is crucial as the districts deals with significant enrollment declines and a subsequent loss of per-pupil state funding.

Clinton McCracken, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, urged the board to follow other Florida school districts and explicitly state in its referendum that the tax money would go funds go toward increasing teacher pay. Earlier this month, for example, Lake County approved putting a one-mill tax on November’s ballot that included language to “increase teacher pay.”

“Morale is declining because educators feel like they are constantly being told why something can’t be done instead of hearing solutions for how it can. At some point, this stops sounding like financial impossibility and starts sounding like institutional stubbornness,” he said.

But Vice Chair Maria Salamanca, who presided over the meeting, said adding the language would only be “symbolic” and using more referendum funds to boost teacher pay could end up hurting other district programs.

“In the world where we don’t get money to increase teacher compensation, the bucket is still the same. Which means we will have to cut support staff, arts, athletics and student activities. That’s kind of how the math works,” she said.

The tax currently helps pay for salaries, with about 45% of the money collected currently spent to “preserve academic programs and retain highly qualified teachers,” the district said.

Board member Alicia Farrant said she wanted to keep the language the same when it goes on the ballot this year, adding that the district doesn’t need to add words to “make it look cool.”

“Although it looks nice on paper, I think it will make it look like, and make our current teachers believe, that they would have a crazy increase next year,” Farrant said.

Facing a budget shortfall, the district has proposed raises of less than 1% for teachers for next school year. Combined with much higher health insurance costs and ongoing inflation, many of the district’s 13,000 teachers could effectively see a pay cut next year, McCracken said.

Board member Angie Gallo said she supported the union’s proposed language, adding that the board needs to make “hard decisions” about its priorities because teachers are struggling to live on the wages they make.

“My heart is literally breaking for them, because I don’t know how they can afford it,” she said.

 

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