DISTRICT, UNION LEADERS OK 3.2% AVERAGE TEACHERS’ RAISE

Salaries for Palm Beach County public school teachers would rise by 3.2 percent on average this year under a plan tentatively agreed to by school district and teachers union negotiators Wednesday evening.

Under the deal, teachers rated “highly effective” would receive 3.5 percent raises and teachers rated “effective” would receive 2.75 percent raises. For the first time in years, teachers would receive percentage-based raises instead of fixed dollar amounts.

District leaders touted it as the highest teacher-salary hike reached so far this year among the state’s large school districts. It’s the largest raise the county’s public school teachers have received since the 2013-14 school year.

“We think it’s a great deal,” said Mike Burke, the school district’s chief financial officer. “We think this will lead the state.”

The agreement came after weeks of rising tensions since the union dismissed the school district’s initial salary proposal — a 2.4 percent average raise — as “unacceptable.”

But the two sides came to terms after exchanging several proposals Wednesday. The agreement, retroactive to the beginning of the school year, would cost the school district an extra $23.2 million in salary and benefits this year.

The deal has to be approved by the county School Board and teacher union members.

The starting salary for school district teachers would remain $41,000 under the proposal, but first-year teachers would get a 0.5 percent cost-of-living raise. A handful of teachers rated as “developing” or “unsatisfactory” would also receive 0.5 percent

raises.

Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa credited the union and the School Board for working toward the agreement but said it was “still not enough” to bring teachers to the pay levels they deserve.

“We’re still not where we want to be,” Avossa said.

District officials suggested Wednesday that they may ask county voters to approve a special property tax hike dedicated to raising teacher pay.

Teachers union President Justin Katz said he was pleased with the district’s final salary offer, and also with its decision to give percentage-based raises this year instead of flat raises. Doing so generally allows more experienced teachers to receive larger raises than less-experienced teachers.

“I think that’s a massive win for teachers to have the district acknowledge that they don’t have to give a 30-year highly effective teacher the same raise as a three-year effective teacher,” Katz said.

Apart from salary raises, teachers this year are expected to receive extra money through a new teacher-bonus program created by the Legislature. Under that program, “highly effective” teachers will receive one-time bonuses of $1,200 and “effective” teachers will receive bonuses of up to $800.

The pay package agreed to Wednesday tops last year’s raises, which hiked teacher pay by 3 percent on average. This year’s agreement would hike salaries by an average of 3 percent but also commits $1.3 million to give onetime bonuses to guidance counselors and other educators covered by the teachers union contract but who are ineligible for the state’s teacher bonuses.

About 55 percent of the school district’s 12,500 teachers are expected to be rated “highly effective,” while nearly all other returning teachers will be rated “effective.” Some 1,150 firstyear teachers don’t yet have effectiveness ratings.

Teachers this year are expected to receive extra money through a new teacher bonus program.