Teachers union, School Board savor
new contract agreement with District
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Monroe County School District teachers and School Related Personnel (SRP) have been buoyed by new contracts, negotiated on their behalf by the United Teachers of Monroe (UTM) union.
The agreements were ratified by union representatives of the rank-and-file at a meeting on Sept. 11, and approved by the School Board at its Sept. 15 gathering.
“I was very happy that we got these contracts signed before the teachers and other employees went back to work this year,” said UTM President Holly Hummel-Gorman. “It feels good to have it out of the way.”
The highlight of the one-year contract for educators is that they’ll be taking home a minimum additional $700 pay increase during the 2015-16 school year. The money is a bonus for teachers who received additional cash as a result of 2014-15 evaluations. Another factor is whether or not they were hired before or after Florida’s mandated new performance-based salary schedule.
Many teachers will see their pay increased by considerably more than $700.
“That $700 is for newer teachers,” said School Board Chairman Emeritus Andy Griffiths, who represents District 2. “I think most of them are going to get $1,400 or better.”
Griffiths said he was pleased by the smoothness of the negotiations, which stood in stark contrast to the often bitter wrangling sessions of years past, when negotiations with the union dragged on into the end of the school year.
“This was one of the highest votes for ratification that I’ve ever seen,” Griffiths said. “Of course, it was a reopener contract, strictly to deal with salary, rather than a full-blown contract negotiation. Reopeners are easier to negotiate. They’re still working on the merit pay aspect, which is new, but they have time to do it before next year. I think the relationship between the UTM and the District is also much improved, and Superintendent [Mark] Porter deserves a lot of the credit for that. You can really get a sense of that in our executive sessions, where you can see the trust he has built up. This is one area where he has really shone.”
On the SRP side of the negotiations,
  • Food service worker salary schedules will be improved by $.50 per hour at each cell.
  • Maintenance salary schedules will also be bumped up by $.50 per hour at each cell.
  • School bus drivers will receive between $.20 and $.40 more per hour, depending on length of employment, plus a transition amount
  • And bus aides will take home an extra $.25 to $.50 per hour, also depending on length of employment, plus a transition amount.

 

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