Union and school district negotiators reached a contract settlement as Pasco County School teachers headed to winter break.
The proposed contract calls for a 3.25% raise for teachers, as well as a number of contract language provisions.
Don Peace, president of United School Employees of Pasco (USEP), covered this year’s contract negotiations between the union the school district in a video, which is available on USEP’s website, USEPonline.org.
“We recently settled our SRP negotiations, with a salary increase of 3.25% to all SRPs with additional monies going to some of our lower paid groups to raise them one level on the salary schedule.
“We also got some very good language provisions in safety and wellness, union rights, leaves of absence and working conditions for our SRPs,” he said.
The school board voted to ratify the SRP contract, which was later ratified by the SRP membership.
Those salary increases should start showing up in late January, with retroactive pay being seen in mid to late February, Peace said in the video.
He went on to describe the negotiations between the union and the school district.
“This past Tuesday night, USEP and the district reached a settlement on the instructional side, which has been somewhat more contentious, since the beginning,” he said.
A major sticking point was a proposal by Superintendent Kurt Browning that called for secondary school teachers to “take on an additional period of work, give up their planning and reduce allocations to fund salary increases for all employees,” Peace said.
Peace rejected that proposal and said the union “would not consider giving up planning periods. Nor, would we negatively impugn any one sector of our population so that others may flourish.”
Peace added: “Being a teacher myself, I understand the importance of what goes during a teacher’s planning period and would never willingly relinquish that right.”
Ultimately, the district dropped that proposal.
The settlement that was reached provides a 3.25% increase for instructional staff, retroactive to July 1, 2019. Of that raise, 1.625% is a cost of living adjustment for all employees and the remaining 1.625% goes to the Pay for Performance pay plan.
Peace also noted: “In one of the biggest language pieces garnered over the last 15 years of this organization, the teacher evaluation process is now spelled out and placed in the contract language. This was a two-year collaborative effort with the district. That result should provide for continuity in the process and take away the threat of year-to-year change in how the evaluation takes place.”
The Pasco County School Board approved the 3.25% raise for non-instructional employees and non-bargaining employees at its Dec. 17 meeting.
The ratification vote on the teachers’ contract is expected in early 2020.
Published December 25, 2019
