School Board ratifies teacher contract
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Updated on April 25 with information about early-release Wednesdays.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a Special Meeting this morning, the School Board of Alachua County ratified a contract with instructional personnel for the 2024-25 school year. The contract is for a three-year period through July 31, 2027.
Eligible instructional employees (those who had worked more than half the 2023-24 school year and who were not at the top of the salary schedule) received an automatic step increase at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. These step increases ranged from 0.05284% to 1.17709% and averaged 1.0%.
The ratified contract adds a 1.3% increase to all steps on the salary schedules; employees who were not eligible for the step increase will receive only the 1.3% increase. Teachers rated Highly Effective will receive a permanent $200 base salary increase, and teachers rated Effective will receive a permanent $100 base salary increase. All increases are retroactive to the beginning of the 2024-25 contract year.
Supplements for Certified Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists were established or increased.
Early-release Wednesdays were also restored for elementary, center, and K-8 teachers; early-release Wednesdays will resume on May 7.
The 1.3% increase will cost the district $2,257,967, on top of $823,692 for the step increase. With the additional pay increases, the cost is $3,291,996, with about $1.8 million coming from the State teacher salary increase allocation and $1.4 million from the General Fund. Teacher pay now ranges from $47,932 for new teachers with a bachelor’s degree to $68,995 for teachers with 25 years of experience and a doctorate.
Member Thomas Vu made the motion to ratify the contract, seconded by Member Leanetta McNealy. The motion passed 4-0, with Member Janine Plavac absent.
If this school board hires another superintendent within the next 3 years and gives greater than a 2% pay increase over what the current superintendent makes, (or gives her greater to stay), the entire board needs to be taken behind the wood shed.
Sad day when the board isn’t willing to acknowledge the financial challenges facing teachers.
The biggest difference between the superintendent and teachers is that the superintendent is not a union member who gets paid exactly the same as everyone else with the same experience and education.
If teachers would reject the union, they could negotiate their salaries, too.
This contract is shameful. Our teachers live at the poverty line, pay for their own supplies, and can’t even count on their union to make a meaningful effort for raises. Base teacher salary should be 55k in this county. This board has only demonstrated their special interests time and again, and those interests don’t include the best opportunities for the pupils.
In other words, all his whining from the school board is about a tiny amount from them and most being paid by the state. SAD. Maybe more money would have been available if these Democrat politicians didn’t have such a bloated and grossly overpaid staff.
$200 dollars for highly effective teachers and $100 for effective teachers.
This is how much value a better teacher is perceived to be worth by the SBAC.
I’m extremely surprised living in one of the highest taxed countries in the state that we are having a discussion or it’s a problem to pay teachers a fair living wage. It seems like elected officials always come up, short financially to pay for core services. There should be an state audit for the entire county services and see where all the taxpayers money is being spent on. We have 5 county managers that have a higher salary than governor DeSantis.