Teacher’s union negotiations: Still no deal on Brevard teacher raises, healthcare premiums
Florida Today | By Bailey Gallion | July 14, 2022
Negotiations between the Brevard Federation of Teachers and Brevard Public Schools continue, with the union again rejecting the district’s raise package this week.
The parties have not reached a deal on insurance premiums and recurring teacher raises, which appear to be the final sticking points in this years’ contract negotiations. This week, the district offered a 4% raise to teachers.
The union has been adamant that it will not accept a contract that doesn’t include robust recurring raises after agreeing to one-time bonuses during last year’s negotiations and has accused the district of raising premium costs high enough to render the raises meaningless. BPS has disagreed and says the district is working with very limited recurring funds.
Negotiations between the Brevard Federation of Teachers and Brevard Public Schools continue, with the union again rejecting the district’s raise package this week.
The parties have not reached a deal on insurance premiums and recurring teacher raises, which appear to be the final sticking points in this years’ contract negotiations. This week, the district offered a 4% raise to teachers.
The union has been adamant that it will not accept a contract that doesn’t include robust recurring raises after agreeing to one-time bonuses during last year’s negotiations and has accused the district of raising premium costs high enough to render the raises meaningless. BPS has disagreed and says the district is working with very limited recurring funds.
“It’s been slow, painful, and a bit ugly at times,” the union wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. “With that said, we are making progress.”
Teachers will receive one-time bonus payments of $3,400 to $4,400 next year — an offer already accepted and ratified by the union — and during negotiations last month, the union secured 5 more days of parental leave for a total of 10.
The bonus payments are scheduled to go out in September, November and February and will cost the district about $20 million.
In a press release, BPS called the raise package “the largest since 2016.” Teachers would receive a 4% recurring raise and have a starting salary of $49,082.
“The union leader has talked for months about the need for better staff recruitment and retention practices,” BPS wrote in a statement. “However, when BPS provided a strategy to do so, the union leader chose not to accept BPS’ idea.”
BPS has also agreed to provide $45 for teachers to cover a class during their planning time, a $1,200 pay supplement for teachers on the performance pay salary schedule who’ve served the district longer than 10 years and a $2,500 supplement for teachers who specialize in working with students with disabilities.
The district also offered this week to give teachers at 26 priority schools between $2,000 and $3,000 in one-time recruitment and retention pay. The union refused the offer and said in a Facebook post that the schools appeared to be “drawn out of a hat.” It also said the raise distributions offered by the district would help teachers working for the district for 10 years far less than those with less experience and those with more.
“BPS has been begun its yearly attempts to divide and conquer our membership. We won’t be fooled, and we know you won’t be either,” the union wrote. “We are trying to secure the best deal for all and not pick winners and losers.”
Negotiations resume July 27.
