Teachers’ union declares impasse with school district
Staff report
ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Alachua County Education Association (ACEA), the union that represents teachers and staff in Alachua County Public Schools, has declared an impasse in its contract negotiations with the School Board of Alachua County.
According to a release from ACEA, this means that negotiations have reached a point that the union deems unacceptable.
President Carmen Ward said, “The union has negotiated in good faith with the district since February. The salary proposal offered by the district is meager and unacceptable. The district has a budget increase and is not prioritizing employees in their salary proposals. We will be rallying prior to the school board meeting Tuesday September 17th at the district offices. We are planning to gather at 5:15 on the west side of the district offices to stand in solidarity against the unfair salary proposals.”
Alachua County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
God help us.
Teachers Union vs School Board. Bunch of power hungry parasitic bitter women fighting over money and politics…
What could possible go wrong?
There are men who have chosen to make education their profession of choice.
Appears racism and misogynism can exist together.
Thanks for the incel position. Try less cologne.
Stop cucking…I’m just being observant. The school board is 100% female and the ACEA staff seems to be the same (https://www.alachuaea.org/acea-staff)
Neither group hides their far-left, progressive politics either.
ACEA staff are not the entirety of the Alachua County School District. While the majority of teachers, mostly in primary grades are women, for you to imply the district is a “Bunch of power hungry parasitic bitter women fighting over money and politics…” shows how shallow you are. I guess the next thing we’ll hear is how they need to stay home, make dinner and clean house.
May want to keep your chauvinism to yourself, they do much more in today’s society than what you think.
Many women do great things but our local school board and teachers union doesn’t know anything about greatness. Both are unable to take criticism and correct known issues. Both run from accountability. Learn how to take a punch instead of bitching all of the time. Stop being a feminist and acting like everyone hates women…tomorrow I’ll probably be critical of a bunch of white old men but that’ll be okay to you, right?
Nice of you to finally acknowledge that. Unfortunate that someone had to call you out before you were willing to do so.
You made an insinuation and I defended them.
Your momma break out the peach branch too many times when you were a little boy? Just because Darwin had a lot of theories doesn’t make them true, and you may want to read other material.
By the way, you’ll probably be critical of other ethnic groups before the one you mentioned, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Hope you prove me wrong.
I feel your pain Slice. Maybe it’s your breath.
Kissinger redux: “It’s a pity both sides can’t lose.” But the public will lose regardless.
The children lose and so do the taxpayers who pay for it.
Wow SOS, scary person. You can’t have a Bloated overhead and get a raise. Cut the Fat, get grades up to an A . Problem solved.
Can’t say that that I blame them. This is the same district that offered/gave the superintendent a 20 – 25% pay increase, $800 per month car allowance, “catch up” retirement contributions,…
Where’s the equity in that?
Too many administrators paid far too much, shrinking FTE, inflation, a minority of students receiving a large piece of the outlay, inefficient budgeting and the list goes on and on.
Is that picture a real person or a Disney comic character?
BOOM! Direct hit on that poor child.
Worst possible hairdo, tacky clothing, trinket costume jewelry, clearly an example of highly educated, approaching divine, level of leadership.
As they like to say down South, “Well bless her heart.”
Carmen Ward makes $100K plus and the union has never helped teachers get a nice pay raise.
150k actually. She’s a crook!
Neither this teachers union nor the SBAC did our students and families any favors during the politically generated Covid scare. You might notice neither side mentions what the teachers get now or what they want. Typical hidden from the Sunshine. Sad.
Filed under “Bidenomics: Own Worst Enemies” subcategory.
Enjoy
I’m a lot worse off since Biden & kamala took office…
How dare this Union or the SBAC ever say that they care for the students! They continue to demonstrate they only care for themselves and the power to lord over the citizens of Alachua County. The students suffer and are purposely prevented from any sense of a marketable education and these selfish pretenders wonder why the parents that can, remove their children from the public schools.
I am disgusted at these comments. Our education is great because of the teachers union. I will be visiting with Tina Certain when I am in Gainesville along with the union officials. Please show some respect
Tell us about the child abuse the school board & unions did with face masks & social distancing with the C19 lie…I will never forget!
The teachers stayed home and got paid…they only cared about themselves, not the students.
The teachers should get paid by performance and how well the children learn…
Not all children want to learn so that wouldn’t be a fair assessment.
Many know that already and unfortunately the counter argument could be those who deal with the more difficult should make more, even if it’s likely they will have far less success.
They should get rid of all unions…garbage men shouldn’t be able to strike.
How about police union?
Let’s just abolish public schools all together and parents pay for their own kids education. Don’t breed em if you can’t educate and feed em.
It’s called personal responsibility.
It takes a village to raise a child is commi slogan.
I don’t want this village to have any influence on my children!
How much do teachers make? I have no idea so I have no idea if they’re paid fairly or not. As with everything else, I think pay should be based on merit.
Florida average teacher pay is last in the country.
Per student spending is 42nd in the country.
“You get what you pay for.” Quit bellyaching and support our teachers and schools. Kids are the primary responsibility of parents, not teachers or the schools.
Florida
Average Teacher Starting Salary
$47,178
#16
in the nation
Average Teacher Salary
$53,098
#50
in the nation
Teacher Pay Gap
80¢
Minimum Living Wage
$58,970
Per Student Spending
$12,488
#42
in the nation
Average K-12 ESP Earnings
$32,127
#27
in the nation
Average HE ESP Earnings
$41,778
#38
in the nation
Average Higher Ed Faculty Salary
$102,927
#15
in the nation
The problem here is the disproportionate salaries of district level personnel as compared to the people in the trenches; the teachers, custodial workers, food services, and other support staff who are out there every day. The latter group being the ones who have an everyday impact, or are potentially impacted, by the children in their care.
I’m pretty confident no one has offered those individuals as much as a 5% raise, yet everyone gripes and complains about the costs of inflation. Contrary to what some think, educational professionals weren’t immune to those effects. Even worse, the ones most affected were often the least compensated.
Teachers work nine months. Do not work a long day. Bring work home so they can do it while watching TV or whatever. They lack interest and professionalism. Dress well, speak professionally. Keep your personal opinions to yourself.
And please, don’t sit in the teacher’s lounge and compare your students to your own children. Remember, some other teacher is speaking unkindly of your children.
You get partial credit but that’s about it.
I’d like to know the terms of the contract they rejected before taking a side either way.
From our article on the SBAC’s July 16 meeting:
During the agenda item designated for the teachers’ union, ACEA President Carmen Ward said the negotiations on their next contract are “not great.” She said the SBAC team had threatened to “go to impasse” if the union did not “move off of [their] stronghold… around early release Wednesdays.” She also said the proposed raise is 1.6%, and “we definitely did not think that was acceptable.” She said the union offered a compromise of a monthly early release Wednesday, but the SBAC team stayed at 1.6% and “continued to behave as if we were at an impasse and did not negotiate in good faith.” She said the union is asking for a 3.4% raise.
ACEA Service Unit Director Crystal Tessman said that if a paraprofessional steps in to substitute for a teacher, they only get an extra $25 per day, and that is prorated by the hour, so it could be much less. She said the district pays between $105 and $144 per day to hire a substitute, so the district could pay a higher supplement to the paraprofessional and still save money over hiring a substitute. She concluded, “I hope this information somehow has not clearly been presented before and that it is now very clear that $25 a day is exploitative and unacceptable.”
After a number of SBAC employees spoke during general public comment about how much the cost of living has increased, Member Tina Certain said, “We have been very generous.” She said school boards have little control over their funding in Florida, and “we have to operate within that allotment of the money that we have… I’m not one to want to nickel and dime employees. I believe in paying fairly, but we have the constraint where the five of us are not deciding on the total amount of funding, and… we have to operate the school district, the buildings, buses, staff pay… I’m not insensitive to the cost of living, increasing – or not. But the five of us up here do not control the amount of money that comes into this district… There’s only a limited pot of money.”
https://alachuachronicle.com/school-board-votes-down-proposal-that-would-have-made-50-the-minimum-score-for-assignments-delays-student-code-of-conduct-changes-to-august/
We Certainly know whose side Ms Certain is on and it’s not the teachers’.
She’s correct about not controlling the money that comes into the District, but she sure has control over how it’s spent. She’s shown her true colors and has consistently called for/voted to redistribute funds to other schools and students who she has determined needs propping up. She’s also never told certain personnel that our offer is “very generous” without offering a much higher percentage increase and benefit package over their predecessors.
Wonder how she would like it if someone told her to make do with the budget she has? Remember that when the one mill comes up. Time to stop robbing Peter to pay Paul.
What’s not being talked about enough is where the money comes from to pay teachers, staff and union bosses. Taxes and fees.
I moved to Alachua County 5 years ago from Marion County. My taxes tripled for the same size property and house and they have gone up every year since except one. That $10 reduction was more than made up for in subsequent years.
What has not gone up, except for small cost of living adjustments, is my income. I am retired. I worked full time for 53 years until I was 74. There are no big pay days left. Every property tax increase is a net loss for me and I’m sure many others.
Commissioner Cornell has bragged publicly several times that the millage rate has gone down every year he has been a commissioner. That may be true but millage alone does not determine what is paid in property tax. And that does not apply to Gainesville city residents where rates have not gone down every year.
The unspoken part is the fact that property values increase every year, often significantly, with the result property owners pay more despite reduced millage. Also note that for the School Board budget property values are set much higher. Makes you wonder if there is some collusion between the commissioners and the Property Appraiser.
The County Commissars think they can solve all problems by increasing taxes. What’s worse is they and the SBAC are not solving problems and the commissioners waste money on feel good pet projects like buying a run down motel that is uninhabitable due to lead, asbestos, and mold to provide 35 units for the “unhoused.”
As reminder of how your tax dollars are being used the cost of the motel was $1.95 million and the estimated cost of remediation was $1.55 million, all for 35 units. And if you are curious you should look at some of the other “affordable housing” boondoggle programs. You can even get up to $50,000 for your down payment which you don’t have to pay back if you live in the house long enough.
The City of Gainesville has it’s programs too.They have one for middle income called Dreams2Reality program where up to $70k in assistance may be available. But then help is needed since these homes are not cheap. They are in the Heartwood subdivision where the house at 812 SE 16th Dr. lists at $320,707.00. That’s affordable housing owned and being sold by the city. Do you know how many decent homes exist in nice areas for less – hundreds. Tell me about an affordable housing crisis. You can bet someone is making money. You and I, through our taxes, are helping to pay someone else’s rent or mortgage.
Another area you might want to look at to see how tax dollars are spent is the county commissioners slush fund called Wild Spaces Public Places. But you might find it hard to get much detail. I’ve requested information twice from my district commissioner and never received a reply.
All comments are based on information obtained from realty web sites, county and Gainesville city web sites and articles in the Gainesville Sun and Alachua Chronicle.
Welcome to Alachua County.
We’ll progressively raise your taxes, (hide some in the special assessments), get our gullible voters to vote to increase their taxes, and if you’re unfortunate enough to live in the City, they’ll be getting theirs too.
Vote NO on the 1% millage school TAX increase. This is the ONLY way to control out of control progressive spending BS. Give teachers a bigger raise but take it out the administrative budget.
These programs (along with road improvements and fire stations) are all funded by a voter approved 1% ($.01 per dollar) sales tax which has a limited life, not property taxes.
Stupid people continue to vote for stupid people and stupid things.
Thanks for confirmation.
Did you really expect a union boss to be honest?