Page 3 - Edgewood 1 2019

Editorial
Teacher Pay in Brevard
Teacher pay in Brevard, long a subject of debate, has recently been brought into the forefront of local affairs. For over a year, Brevard county has been embroiled in a dispute between the school district and the Brevard Federation of Teachers (BFT), the organization responsible for representing the concerns of teachers in the county.
During negotiations of the 2018-2019 teacher contract, BFT proposed a reasonable raise for educators, in line with the district’s financial capability to dispense those raises. These requests included a $2,300 raise for teachers rated “highly effective” and a $1,725 raise for teachers rated “effective.” BFT’s’ proposed teacher salary options were realistic and attainable, and the school district has a responsibility to invest in this crucial aspect of the education system.
Brevard Public Schools employs about 9,300 staff members. In fact, they are the largest employer in Brevard, and therefore wield significant economic influence. That means that the level of pay that teachers receive has effects that reverberate throughout the economy of the entire county.
Yet in Brevard, teacher salaries are some of the lowest in the state. Teachers are paid more than $2,100 less than the state average. In fact, as many as 625 teachers have left the county in the past three years, a “silent protest” spurred by dissatisfaction with low pay levels as compared to elsewhere in the state. BFT is responsible for translating this dissatisfaction into real progress; they act as a bridge from the teachers to the school district.
Every year, the district and BFT negotiate a new contract for teacher pay. The negotiations are typically time- consuming; they can last months without a conclusion. This past year, however, represented a worsening in the relations between the two organizations. They could not agree on an appropriate teacher salary plan and were forced to call an “impasse,” or a situation where no progress is possible.
Due to the impasse, Florida law requires a special magistrate be selected to hear both sides of the dispute and make a non-binding recommendation to the superintendent. Thomas Young, a circuit judge and an experienced special
magistrate, was chosen to evaluate the situation. This magistrate’s responsibility was to objectively examine the school district’s finances as well as the proposals from BFT and the district and then make a recommendation based on those findings.
Young concluded that the school district was indeed capable of realizing the requests of BFT, and made that recommendation to Superintendent Mark Mullins.
Rejecting the special magistrate’s findings, Mullins claimed the school district does not have the budget to facilitate such pay raises. The school board agreed. The school board instead decided on a $1,100 raise for highly effective and an $825 raise for effective teachers.
At issue is the amount of money the district saves when replacing teachers. As longer-serving teachers leave the district and new teachers are hired (at lower pay), the school board saves on payroll expenses. BFT, using payroll information from the school board, thinks the amount saved should be approximately $4 million per year. Mullins called thatfigure“unverifiable”andsaidthemoneysavediscloser to $1.5 million.
Teachers, of course, were not happy with this proposed contract.
When voted on by 4,074 Brevard teachers (the highest total ever recorded), 96% voted it down. Due to county and state rules, however, the vote was largely symbolic. After the vote, the district imposed the contract anyway and paid the teachers their retroactive pay.
Brevard Public Schools, the largest employer in the county, cannot put students first if it puts teachers last. The facts of the story speak for themselves, as do the financial statements of the district.
The Brevard Federation of Teachers and the school district have begun teacher contract negotiations for the 2019-2020 school year. BFT has a positive outlook for this year’s negotiations as changes have been made in the negotiating team of the school district. Hopefully, this year’s negotiations will represent a step forward in the treatment of one of the most valuable resources in the Brevard school system - teachers.
10/8
Stetson, UCF, and Duke University Representatives on campus
10/12
Homecoming Dance
10/16
PSAT on campus
10/18
Fall Musical “Bye Bye Birdie” begins