School board hears from teachers upset about contract, extends Superintendent’s contract to June 2026
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their January 21 regular meeting, the School Board of Alachua County heard from over a dozen teachers who are upset about the contract they failed to ratify and extended the Superintendent’s contract by a year, to June 2026.
Changes to agenda
Chair Sarah Rockwell wanted to make sure that everyone could make it home before the storm started, so she requested several changes to the agenda, including a hard stop at 9 p.m. The ratification of the bargaining agreement with teachers was pulled from the agenda because the contract was not ratified by union members, and Rockwell also pulled discussions about Master Board Training and citizen input phone calls, promising to add them to a future agenda. Looking at a room full of teachers, she said that if anyone signed up to speak but did not get an opportunity before 9 p.m., they would be first in line at the February 5 meeting.
Member Thomas Vu said he thought everyone who had come to the meeting deserved to be heard and voted against the amended agenda because he disagreed with the hard stop at 9 p.m., but it passed, 3-1.
“Facts and figures” on teacher and Superintendent pay
Superintendent Kamela Patton asked Public Information Officer Jackie Johnson to share “a couple of informational items,” and Johnson presented some “facts and figures… For example, the median salary for teachers in Alachua County Public Schools during the 2023-24 school year ranked 24th among Florida’s 67 counties, and those figures come from the Florida Department of Education… Data also shows that among the nine districts in North Central Florida that include Alachua County and the eight surrounding communities, ACPS is consistently among the top three in median teacher salaries. Also, unlike many Florida school districts, Alachua County Public Schools provides a robust and comprehensive benefits package that includes single medical coverage and life insurance at no cost to the employees.”
Johnson added, “We do want to clarify that the total compensation package for our current Superintendent is actually costing the district less than the package for the previous Superintendent.”
Teachers dominate citizen input period
During the initial citizen input period, 13 teachers spoke about their dissatisfaction with the contract they had voted against, arguing both that the 1.6% increase (on top of a 1% step increase) was insufficient to keep up with the cost of living and that early-release Wednesdays should be reinstated.
There was applause after the first teacher spoke, and Rockwell said, “I appreciate that you all want to support your colleagues, but if we can refrain from applauding,… that will allow us to get through more speakers.” Regardless, the teachers continued to applaud each other throughout the meeting.
Teachers said the 1.6% increase is an “insult” and that the union had agreed to the reduction in early-release Wednesdays in good faith, with the expectation that the district would come back with an offer that treated teachers with dignity. One teacher said, “We were made to understand that if we voted ‘no’ against this ratification, we would get our early-release Wednesdays back; it seems only fair, since the district didn’t seem to hold up their end of the bargain… The very least you can do is offer us a 2.7% increase that would match our national rate of inflation for 2024; we are not asking for $22,000 a month plus living expenses, we are asking you to treat us with respect.”
The same teacher said that the information provided by Johnson “to somehow make us feel guilty about being here, to somehow be complaining about our job – that was also disrespectful… I did not appreciate those facts thrown out in our faces like we’re somehow here for not good reasons. We know what we do every single day, and we know that we work for free quite frequently, and we keep getting more to do for less. So I would really appreciate it if, those comments that you did tonight, if you could go back and look at your intention for them. I don’t think it was positive.”
Another teacher said that “just 1% more would mean more money in our pockets that we desperately need” and asked the board to fight for teachers.
ACEA President Carmen Ward said the failed ratification was a message from teachers to “try again, and we need to find the money in the budget to make a better offer for salaries for these amazing educators.” She said nobody could remember a previous ratification vote failing and that the board had said it’s not possible to do better than 1.6% “and actually act like this district is very broke – and then turn around and be okay with throwing over a quarter of a million dollars at one person… I do think that there is money in the budget.”
Vu makes motion to let everyone speak
The board’s policy is to take citizen input for 30 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and the remaining speakers at the end, but Vu made a motion to let everyone on the list at that point speak in the early input session, even though it was projected to go over 30 minutes. Certain seconded the motion, but the total number of citizens on the list reached 20 at that point, triggering the board policy that reduces the time per speaker to two minutes from three minutes once there are 20 speakers. Member Leanetta McNealy said she wanted everyone to have three minutes, and Vu amended his motion to allow for three minutes per speaker. The motion passed unanimously.
Teachers urge return to early-release Wednesdays
A parent who said she represented multiple families from Wiles Elementary said she supported better pay for teachers.
One teacher said, “The district’s decision to circumvent this rejection [by continuing the reduction in early-release Wednesdays] is made in bad faith. In a time when we see the will of the people being subverted at state and federal levels, it is incumbent upon us to preserve the democratic process at the local level, and that starts with respecting the voice of the teachers in this district… The right thing to do is to accept the proposal’s defeat and form a plan to return to early-release Wednesdays as soon as possible.”
Another teacher urged the teachers in the room to refuse to work outside of their contract hours: “We leave; we walk away. We do not continue to grade papers at home. We do not continue to sacrifice the needs of our own children, our own family, our own health, for a board who does not care about us… At the beginning of this meeting, we were informed that our system of abuse was better than other systems of abuse, so therefore we should feel grateful and appreciated. No, we do not. We feel abused, as we should feel abused.”
One teacher said, “The board is not the one making the communications in reference to our wages; it is the district.” She thanked the board for allowing all of the teachers to speak.
Superintendent’s contract extension
The board also approved a one-year extension of the Superintendent’s contract with no other changes. Vu made the motion to approve the contract extension, and Member Tina Certain seconded the motion.
During discussion of the contract extension, all four board members expressed their support for and gratitude to Patton.
Vu said, “Dr. Patton is the person to get us through what we need to get through because we have a lot of hard decisions coming and we know that we have worked in a district that tends to function based on who I know, not who can do the job. And I just want to say out here publicly, Dr. Patton is the one to do this job… It’s very hard to impress me, and I am continuously impressed [by her].”
Certain requested a workshop to create a plan for the board’s priorities because it “feels like we’re just playing whack-a-mole… [Withou a plan], all we’re going to ever address are the urgent issues that keep popping up, and we’ve got to get beyond that, for… the success and the stability of the district.” She said she also wants to have seven periods in the secondary schools.
McNealy said she was confident that Patton would do everything in her power to help the district and that the board needs to support her “so that whoever comes up for selection after June 2026 will want to be here.” To the teachers who had spoken during public input, she added, “I hear you. I understand.”
Rockwell asked Assistant Superintendent for Finance Gabrielle Jaremczuk whether the current Superintendent’s compensation package had been compared to former Superintendent Shane Andrew’s compensation package as a total or per month, and Jaremczuk said it was per month.
Rockwell clarified, “So each month we are paying her, for one month, less than Mr. Andrew made for one month, correct?” and Jaremczuk replied, “Yes, each month she is making less than the previous Superintendent’s overall salary and benefits.”
Regarding Patton’s contract extension, Rockwell said, “I can tell you that for the first time since I joined this board two years ago, I actually feel hopeful that we might be able to get our financial situation under control and be able to do the things that our students deserve and that our staff, our teachers, our ESPs deserve.”
With the previous motion still on the table, Vu made a motion to allow speakers to have three minutes to comment on the motion to approve the contract extension, and the motion passed unanimously.
During citizen input on the contract extension, Carmen Ward said she had no problem with Dr. Patton, but “I’m just wondering: if everything is so precarious with our finances and we don’t know what the federal funding for our school system is going to look like, I’m wondering if a honeymoon period with the new leader is not clouding judgment to make a commitment when it doesn’t need to be done now?” She said she had tried to have a conversation with Patton after the teachers failed to ratify their contract, and “I was unable to get her attention or her time.”
A teacher said the board and district need to be more transparent about why they can’t pay more than a 1.6% raise, particularly why the money in the fund balance can’t be used for salaries.
Rockwell said board members don’t typically respond to comments, but she was making an exception because “you all deserve budget transparency.” She said the district is still waiting for numbers from the state, and when they arrive, she will ask the Superintendent to make a presentation to explain unassigned fund balance and the percentages the district is required to maintain.
Rockwell added that the reason they needed to vote to extend the contract was that if the vote failed, they would need to move quickly to find a new Superintendent before the original contract ending date of June 2025.
The motion to extend Patton’s contract passed unanimously.
Final citizen input period
Two more teachers spoke during the final citizen input period, and they each got three minutes instead of two minutes after Vu’s motion to suspend the rules passed unanimously.
A student spoke in favor of increasing teacher pay, and a former district employee said the board had previously voted to ask the Superintendent to work with the internal auditor to report all internal auditing actions to the board and prepare a proposed audit plan for the remainder of the school year, but that never happened.
A teacher said it felt to her like “the hostile negotiations with the union were perhaps a result of assuming that the Governor would successfully do away with our union with his continually more stringent requirements for us to simply exist… While I’ve read about our interim Superintendent and have no doubt she is wonderful and probably worth every penny – so are we.” She said all the money paid out to fired Superintendents has been wasted and continued, “I hope we can clean it up in 16 months and make us a gem where somebody wants to come. But I have seen time and time again, the [quality] things that Superintendents do bring… get thrown right out the door, and it is a bitter pill to swallow to see this money spent when we are being disrespected this way.”
Another teacher said, “I am truly astounded that you have the audacity to tell us that we do not get our Wednesdays back whenever that was in our terms. I don’t think that was spoken about enough tonight. I am extremely angry with the 1.6% proposal. However, I think I’m even more angry that you disrespect us enough to go back on your word. We need that planning time in order to effectively teach our kids. And because of how I feel, how I have been treated in this district, with the lack of respect as far as how much I am worth, not only in my pay but also in my planning time. I have decided that I will not be teaching here next year, and I’m very excited to say that because someone else, another district, deserves my time and my passion, and you do not.”
Board Attorney weighs in on early-release Wednesdays
After citizen input, Certain asked Board Attorney David Delaney about the early release Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and Delaney said the last paragraph of the MOU states, “‘This agreement is in place until all agreements and salary are ratified by the ACEA bargaining unit and the board for the 2024-2025 school year.’ That has not happened yet. Statute says if a contract is not ratified, you return to bargaining… The Memo of Understanding is still in effect until that condition occurs or to the end of this school year.”
Certain thanked him and said, “The board is being told that we don’t change mid-year like this… There’s a bargaining meeting that happens on Monday, so we’re back at square one, it seems.”
Board Member Comment
During Board Member Comment, Vu thanked members of the public for their comments and added, “I would just love it if everybody stays engaged and continues to call us out because we don’t get better unless you call us out.”
Rockwell agreed, “All of you today told your stories and spoke your truth,… so keep coming, keep speaking.”
Deputy Superintendent Cathy Atria said the internal auditor reports to her, and she shares audit reports with the Board Chair, but Rockwell said she wanted those reports sent to the whole board. Patton recommended sharing all audit reports at public board meetings.
They are going to really have something to talk about when the DOE is abolished, money goes back to states. School board members and superintendents will be elected volunteers. Our school taxes go away. And the teachers finally get paid, instead of the straw bosses.
“The board had said it’s not possible to do better than 1.6% “and actually act like this district is very broke – and then turn around and be okay with throwing over a quarter of a million dollars at one person… I do think that there is money in the budget.”
Wonder if Ms. Johnson would be willing to show where the Superintendent’s salary is in relation to other counties since she was so willing to tout Alachua County’s teachers salaries as opposed to others.
How long is it going to take this group of educators to realize the SBAC doesn’t care about them and are more prone to telling lies than they are the truth. You would think the likes of McNealy and Vu would have an appreciation for teachers instead of wanting to thumb their noses at them. That’s the only reason the Board wants the public to keep “calling them out” and “speaking their truth.” They’re able to close the meeting, go in the back room and laugh.
Teachers need to prepare more before the next election cycle.
I read articles every month about the school board and our local school system. Never once have I read about a meeting that actually addresses legitimate schooling issues. Children are becoming dumber by the year while public education budgets keep multiplying.
Every damn meeting is about money. The administrators need more money. The teachers need more money. Need more money for buildings. Need more money to feed kids year round. Need more money for wifi on the buses.
A sick society breads sick people. These people are worried with saving the system they’re entrenched in and not worried with actually proving education for the next generation. Use the charter school credits or homeschool if you care!…bleed the system dry
“Never waste a good crisis”…did Ms. Piggy wear the face diaper before the big lie? 🐽😷
The purple diaper matches the rest of “it’s” outfit… is this a fashion statement or mental illness?
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
What a whack job! If she’s “Typhoid Mary”, she should stay home and be a super hero…
She’s wearing the mask to protect you, and no one is wearing a mask to protect her…
the masks are Chinese psycho tool to scare people away…it’s how social distancing got introduced in the scamdemic…
Fauci got a Biden pardon along with his felonious son Hunter.
Thank god Trump signed executive order getting us out of the WHO… F vax passports!
🎶 Hey, teachers! Leave them kids alone!🎶 🐷🐽🐖
I wonder if she has to pay extra for that accessory or if they come like baby clothes as a set? Like onesies that come with a head covering.
Any woman who so often publicly wears that much purple with pearl accessories is most likely signaling that she’s in the Order of Melchizedek.
This is even more obvious when it’s a person of questionable character who holds a public facing governmental position. Another well known example is Jill Biden.
I wasn’t aware of Jill’s involvement. HRC, Kamala, Michele Obama, and Pelosi absolutely. (ie see Kamala’s 2020 inauguration pics). Pelosi is even higher…Order of Mongolia and Order of the Banner (ie see pics of when they did that weird African scarf (kente cloth) photo op while kneeling down in 2020).
The symbolism is everywhere and easy to spot – weather names, numbers, colors, or sigils. It’s like a name badge
Evil, you’re right. I just searched Jill Biden 2025 inauguration photo and she’s donning the same getup that Harris wore for 2021 inauguration. Eerily similar to what Rockwell always wears. The purple is now just as obvious as 33.
Abolish the DEI department and money will be found there. Time for the state to take over this school district and clean up the mess.
Former ACPS teacher here. Teachers, leave and go to a private school! It is the best decision I have made last year. I get better pay, same benefits, real teaching is happening, and the best perk is: unruling kids are being disciplined and parents brought in the be held accountable! I love going to work everyday! Let this district fail so the state can come in and clean up the filthy corruption!
“Unruling kids”…yes. I feel soooo much better with my kids being taught by a teacher in a private school who can’t complete a sentence with correct grammar.
The only reason the new superintendent isn’t making as much as the prior superintendent, is that Mr. Andrews got a raise prior to being let go. Give it 6 months, they’ll give the new superintendent a 5% raise for some kind of compensation and then she’ll be gone by the end of next school year.
I predict that come June 2026, the new superintendent will be hired from within. It’ll be Dr. Patton’s current hand-picked Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.
Has anyone else wondered why both left their well paying positions in Collier County?
So we are paying for her and her minion of choice? They really didn’t spell that out to the taxpayers when they talked about hiring her
What’s going on with the teachers and support staff is a slap in the face. They act like “Oh, it’s all Tallahassee” when they are doing their best to kill our district from within.
Kudos to Vu for asking that all speakers get their full 3 minutes. Even some Kudos to Certain for accepting responsibility for questionable board decisions, some of which she didn’t even vote for. Thumbs down, however, for Rockwell for passing the blame for a bad board decision. She completely missed the point of accepting responsibility as an entire entity
The teachers and support staff deserve a fair raise. If the board can’t get it together, it’s high time the state takes over.
Having retired from another county’s public school system where my property taxes were 1/3 of what I pay in Alachua, I don’t understand!!!! We had an “A” rating for our schools, we elected our superintendent & teachers were paid better. I REALLY expected so much more in Gainesville/Alachua County. Both of my adult children have MASTERS in ED from UF & they have to put up with this superintendent turn-over with a board of fools trying to do what?????? NOTHING makes sense in this NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, we live in a town where stupid, half-crazy women are never called out because of their gender, especially if it is a ‘wahmen of color.’ Hopefully those days are coming to a rapid end.
The vaguely useful school board members should be paid exactly what a first year teacher is paid. Same benefits and nothing under the table.
Unfortunately they’d still be getting more than they’re worth. Teachers put in more time, effort, and put up with more problems in a day than this group does in a month.
Now I see why our schools are in trouble….teachers cannot even follow directions (and/or disobey a request…any wonder why there are discipline problems?): “There was applause after the first teacher spoke, and Rockwell said, “I appreciate that you all want to support your colleagues, but if we can refrain from applauding,… that will allow us to get through more speakers.” Regardless, the teachers continued to applaud each other throughout the meeting.”
Miss the part of them supporting one another?
It’s apparent the school board doesn’t so it falls on them.
Exactly. In some circles, that they continued to clap would be lauded as “resistance” or “standing up to power”
I might add, ever been to an Eastside High graduation?
I am deeply offended by the many demeaning and name calling comments. We need to continue offering differing views. But if anyone wants to be taken seriously, those views must be given respectfully. Please.
Deeply? How deep? As deep as the teachers are offended by their miniscule offering of a wage increase?
Suck it up! What offended you? Straw bosses? Minions? Miss Piggy? Stupid? Half-crazy?
You must be a progressive liberal Democrat. Get some thicker skin. If you can’t handle it, don’t read the comments.
The fact that Alachua County is consistently in the “top 3 in teacher pay compared to 8 surrounding communities” is laughable. So, we aren’t even first, when the surrounding communities are Union County, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy….I’m thinking we should run a STRONG FIRST every year in comparison. These people are imbeciles.
Right? Meanwhile our cost of living is much higher than it is in those surrounding communities
I won’t blame Jackie J for those comments at the beginning, but I will blame whomever instructed her to say them. Transparent, tacky and disrespectful.