6% pay hike floated for Orange teachers

Orange County public school teachers would get average pay hikes of 6% under a new proposal the school district offered Wednesday that also scraps one-year bonuses and delays insurance cost increases.

The new plan, which the Orange County School Board decided on in a closed-door meeting last week, is a two-year salary package that would give most teachers raises of $3,000 or $2,400 this year depending on if they were rated “highly effective” or “effective.”

There would be no bonuses — which were an unpopular part of the district’s proposal — with that money diverted to pay hikes, and the cost of family insurance coverage would still go up, but not until February.

Teachers would not get raises next year, however, unless money from the state topped a certain threshold.

The proposed deal is better than contracts negotiated in other Central Florida school districts and represents the Orange school board’s response to teachers upset by earlier compensation proposals, said Scott

Howat, the school district’s chief communications officer.

“We heard the teachers loud and clear,” he said. “I think this is a win-win for everybody.”

In a historic vote in July, Orange teachers for the first time ever voted down a salary package, upset that it offered small raises that would be eaten up by steep rises in insurance costs for employees who covered spouses or children on their plans.

The district on Sept. 19 responded with a new proposal that made no changes to the salary proposal or the insurance costs but did offer teachers a bigger bonus of $1,250. The local teachers union and many teachers were upset by that, saying one-year bonuses don’t help teachers build financial security or take out mortgages or car loans.

“I think it’s really great the district is willing to move on salaries,” said Wendy Doromal, president of the Orange County

Classroom Teachers Association, the union, after the district made its latest offer at Wednesday’s bargaining session.

But Dormal said union members at the session had lots of questions about the new proposal, particularly about its two-year time frame as it means there is no guarantee of raises next year.

Still, they were pleased the district took a new tack. “They heard us,” she said. “That’s a step in the right direction. We’re encouraged by that.”

The union posted information about the new proposal on its Facebook page after bargaining ended Wednesday and will put a questionnaire out to its members for feedback before the next negotiating session, scheduled for early November, she said.

On Facebook, many teachers called the new proposal inadequate, with some saying it would be a good deal if it was for one year not two.

“Still not enough,” one wrote.

“I’m glad that they are raising the salary instead of giving us bonuses,” wrote another. ” If it was a 1 year agreement, then it wouldn’t be bad.”

Since contract negotiations began months ago, the school district’s position has been that the public school system didn’t have more money to put toward teacher raises and, faced with a shortfall in its insurance fund, needed employees who covered family members to pay more.

The district’s initial proposal would have given most teachers raises of $1,625 or $2,025, plus oneyear bonuses.

Howat said the bigger raises would be paid for with money that had been earmarked for bonuses. But those one-time payments came from reserves and not “recurring” money, which is how ongoing salaries are covered.

To make the proposal work financially, he said, the salary package is for two years. There would be no raises next year unless the district received enough from the state to put back the money to be pulled out of reserves this year and then had enough left to also boost salaries.

But with Gov. Ron DeSantis and some lawmakers in Tallahassee talking about raising the minimum teaching salary to $47,500, Orange teachers could be in line for another raise next year, he added.

Board members, he added, hoped front-loading Orange’s package with bigger raises this year would help combat the ongoing teacher shortage by encouraging more experienced teachers to remain in the classrooms.

The raises in the new offer are the same the union proposed in September, though it wanted them as part of a one-year deal. It also wanted health insurance costs to remain as is.

Howat said the district offered to pay for the increases for teacher health insurance through January, at a cost of more than $5 million. It’s offer also means the new health insurance expenses would be in place for two years, so teachers wouldn’t face another increase next year, he said.