To all PBCCTA Members,

On November 7th, the PBCSD and PBCCTA held their latest contract/salary negotiation session. At this point in negotiations, all major contact language has been debated and either tentatively agreed to or rejected and abandoned by both sides. We are currently down to the final stages of our contract negotiations, which revolve around the issues of compensation and raises.

While not much is set to change in terms of contract language based on negotiations to date, it is worth noting a handful of major items proposed by the PBCSD that your CTA forcefully pushed back on and ultimately were able to defeat this year. Those defeated proposals include:

  • The inclusion of contract language that would have mandated PLC meetings during upwards of 3 planning periods a week. Leaving only 2 days of uninterrupted and PLC free planning. Teachers provide enough free, off-the-clock work for our employer already. Sacrificing large amounts of planning for mandatory PLCs would only force you to have to add to your current off-the-clock workload. The PBCCTA did not support this proposal and defeated it at the table.
  • The reclassification of "relief time" for elementary school teachers to "planning time". Essentially, relief time is suppose to be off limits, except in very specific circumstances, for a school administration to infringe upon. The proposed reclassification of relief time to planning time would have made it susceptible to any number of intrusions by a school administration. Furthermore, in conjunction with the aforementioned attempt to mandate PLCs during planning time, it is very likely your relief time would have become PLC time, if both proposals were accepted. The PBCCTA did not support this proposal and defeated it at the table.
  • The MANDATORY instruction of a 6th period class for ALL 6-12 classroom teachers was also proposed by the PBCSD. This item would arguable have been the most damaging, to the largest number of teachers throughout the district. By mandating a 6th period of instruction, all 6-12 teachers would have immediately seen a decrease in their planning time by 50% and an increase in their workload by 20%. (Combined with the potential for 3 mandatory PLC planning periods a week...all told, 6-12 teachers would have seen their planning time cut by over 66%.) Additionally, no associated compensation would have been paid for this additional 6th period of instruction. This proposal would have also forced all teachers who are currently volunteering to teach a 6th period, for the hourly rate supplement, to receive a PAY CUT (since they would no longer receive any compensation for their 6th class). The PBCCTA did not support this proposal and it was defeated at the table.

Below you will find a summary of each raise/salary proposal from the PBCSD and PBCCTA.

PBCSD Proposal

  • The Good
  • The PBCSD proposed a $1200 bonus for Highly Effective educators and up to an $800 bonus for Effective educators (based on their 16-17 final evaluation rating) who are in our bargaining unit, but were NOT included in the Best and Brightest state statute language awarding classroom teachers similar bonuses. PBCCTA bargains for over 1300+ educators not classified as a "classroom teacher". Such positions include media specialists, guidance counselors, school psychologists, etc. PBCCTA is excited to see the PBCSD express a desire to include these members of our bargaining unit in the bonus payout; whereas the FL legislature saw fit to exclude them entirely. PBCCTA supports this aspect of the PBCSD proposal.
  • The PBCSD proposed increases to all supplement pay categories (coaches, club sponsors, etc.) of 5% in of the next two years (starting next school year - Fall 2018/Spring 2019). This would result in an overall increase of 10% to all supplement pay categories in the 2019-2020 school year. PBCCTA has been fighting for years for increased supplement pay. The last noteworthy increase occurred as far back as a decade ago. PBCCTA supports this aspect of the PBCSD proposal and thanks them for acknowledging the need to increase compensation for the thousands of educators throughout the district who dedicate additional time to our students by way of serving as coaches and sponsors.

  • The Bad
  • The PBCSD proposed the following cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and evaluation based raise levels:
  • $325 COLA for ALL members of the bargaining unit
  • $650 raise for those with Effective ratings from 16-17
  • ( Effective = $975 with COLA)
  • $875 raise for those with Highly Effective ratings from 16-17
  • (Highly Effective = $1200 with COLA)
  • Those rated below Effective, as well as employees without a final evaluation from last year, and those hired during the current 17-18 school year would all receive only the $325 COLA increase.

  • The Ugly
  • The PBCSD proposal DID NOT include any language to address the issue of salary compression. (The urgent need to move those teachers who worked through the 5 or so years during/following the recession where little or no raises were ever availble.)
  • All told, the PBCSD total compensation package would result in "an average raise of 2.29%" for members of our bargaining unit. The PBCCTA objects to the characterization of our raises as a percentage because "2.29% average raises" means that thousands of teachers, (particularly those who have worked in the district for an extended period of time) will receive BELOW 2.29%. Many will receive a raise below 2% based on their current pay level.
  • Based on the raises received by our bargaining unit over the previous 2 school years, the current offer by the PBCSD is lower than last year, and substantially lower than the year before that. Additionally, the level of funding allocated by the PBCSD towards teacher compensation, year over year as a percentage of the general fund, has decreased substantially in the past few years. These are troubling and backwards trends, to say the least.

PBCCTA Proposal

  • $500 COLA for ALL members of the bargaining unit
  • $1425 raise for those with Effective ratings from 16-17
  • (Effective = $1925 with COLA)
  • $1900 raise for those with Highly Effective ratings from 16-17
  • (Highly Effective = $2400 with COLA)
  • Those rated below Effective, as well as employees without a final evaluation from last year, and those hired during the current 17-18 school year would all receive only the $500 COLA increase.
  • $50 increase to Differentiated Pay (from $100 to $150) supplement.
  • Retention Adjustment (salary compression) Raise
  • Employees who worked through the years of little, or no raises have seen their pay frozen at levels barely above that of individuals hired in recent years by the PBCSD. It is important to push employees impacted by the recession years closer to where they should be in terms of salary level. This will create much needed separation in compensation for said employees. See below for the PBCCTA proposal to begin addressing this issue.

  • Hired by PBCSD 2/1/12 - Present = $0 retention adjustment
  • Hired by PBCSD 2/1/11 - 1/31/12 = $300 retention adjustment
  • Hired by PBCSD 2/1/10 - 1/31/11 = $600 retention adjustment
  • Hired by PBCSD 2/1/09 - 1/31/10 = $900 retention adjustment
  • Hired by PBCSD 2/1/08 - 1/31/09 = $1,200 retention adjustment
  • Hired by PBCSD ?/??/?? - 1/31/08 = $1,500 retention adjustment

  • This retention adjustment raise scale would be the first in a series of such actions over the course of the coming years to ensure that employees who worked though one or more of the recession impacted years are made as whole as possible moving forward, in terms of their base salary.
  • The retention adjustment would be a TRUE RAISE to your BASE SALARY; not a bonus, or supplement, or any other classification of compensation. This is important to note because a true raise to your base salary will directly assist in building your ultimate FRS payout levels upon retirement.

Based on the first exchange of raise offers...the PBCSD and PBCCTA are miles apart. Hopefully some movement will occur at our next session.

The next scheduled contract negotiation session is tentatively scheduled for December 19th, 2017 at 9:30 AM - ??:?? PM.

You will be receiving another communication from the PBCCTA in the coming week or two regarding what will transpire next. There are plans in the work to organize and engage the PBCSD and PBC School Board. They are not finalized yet and may or may not be necessary depending on how things proceed, between now and the next negotiation session.

Upcoming PBC School Board Meeting dates are as follows:

  • November 15th, 2017 - 5:00 PM
  • December 13th, 2017 - 5:00 PM

The December meeting is just over 1 month away.
ALL CTA MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CLEAR THEIR PERSONAL SCHEDULES AND BE AVAILABLE AFTER WORK ON DECEMBER 13th!

Thank you for the lengthy read.

Let all teachers you associate with know the information in this email, whether they are members or not. We want ALL educators in the PBCSD as informed as possible about the current status of negotiations. Await further information over the next few weeks regarding potential action on December 13th, 2017.
In solidarity,

Justin Katz
CTA President
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