Following over four hours of collective bargaining Tuesday night, the district’s teachers union, the Alachua County Education Association, and district personnel reached tentative agreements on this year's employee contract.
After weeks of bargaining, the two parties agreed to raise educator pay by at least 4%, increase job security for annually contracted teachers and block a district push for increased instructional time.
During the meeting, the district and union debated teacher salaries. The district faced the challenge of balancing a decrease in the general fund budget, which is a portion of the district's budget that pays for expenses like instructor salaries and benefits, with increasing pay for teachers, faculty and staff.
The district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, Deborah Terry, and the union tentatively approved terms where educators will receive an overall pay increase as well as a salary increase based on years of service.
If approved, teachers earning less than $75,000 a year will get at least a 4% raise this school year. Educational support professionals, which includes all non-instructional staff and support staff, will receive a 3% increase in addition to raises allocated based on years of service.
Educators and support professionals evaluated as “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory” will not be eligible for raises based on years of service.
Armando Grundy-Gomes, a ninth grade teacher at Eastside High School, said support professionals play a vital role in the school day.
“When they’re taken care of, we as teachers are going to be taken care of too,” he said.
The district and union also compromised on teacher evaluations and job placement procedures.
In April, some teachers on annual contracts were nonrenewed and blocked from reapplying to teach in the district for a year regardless of their performance.
The district and union created protective clauses for educators expected to receive an “effective” or “highly effective” evaluation. They labeled such instructors as eligible for rehire and indicated they can’t be barred from interviewing at other district schools if there are no roles available at their current school.
They also agreed district administration must issue nonrenewal notices by May 5, which is 10 days earlier than the districts’ originally proposed May 15 date.
Hunter Miller, an eighth grade math teacher at Howard Bishop Middle School and a school board candidate, attended the session and shared his opinion on the bargaining process.
"I'm going to send a message to the people out there: Show up to the meetings,” Miller said. “I’m sure if no teachers showed up today, the district would be more willing to stand on that seven-period day.”
A point of contention during Tuesday’s meeting was the district's attempt to increase educator instructional time.
District personnel proposed raising the daily maximum instructional time for middle and high school teachers from 250 minutes to 270 minutes. They also suggested striking contract language that defines an instructor’s workday as five instructional periods in a six-period day.
ACEA President Crystal Tessmann Hall said the proposed language could too easily become a seven-period day, which the union is uncomfortable with.
Tessmann also said schools already possess the power to adopt a seven-period schedule if faculty votes in its favor. Mandating 270 minutes across the board, she said, could cut class periods by about five minutes and force teachers to take on an extra class.
Teresa Cornelison, a Howard Bishop Middle teacher and union member, said the proposed change would add further pressure to instructors.
“At my particular school, my day ends nine minutes after the kids are out,” Cornelison said. “So all meetings, prep time, common planning … that’s at the beginning of the day. You start cutting into that, then where does that time go?”
Under the tentative contract agreement, the district withdrew its 270-minute proposal. Both district and union representatives agreed not to increase class sizes and clarified that administrative planning with other faculty can’t count toward an elementary school teacher's weekly individual planning time.
The amended contract will now go to district employees for vote. Teachers, support professionals and staff will vote to ratify the agreement before it heads to the school board for final approval Sept. 15.
Contact Ray Garcia at rgarcia@alligator.org. Follow him on X @raygarciafl.
Ray Garcia is a first-year Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law and Public Relations double major at UF, serving as this fall's K-12 education reporter. This is Ray's first semester at The Alligator. Outside of writing for The Alligator, you can often find him spending time with friends, reading, listening to music, or sidequesting around Gainesville.
