Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) announced Thursday that it has reached a tentative 2024-25 salary agreement with the Alachua County Education Association (ACEA), the union representing teachers and most of the district’s other employees. 

The ACEA and the ACPS negotiating team have tentatively agreed to a total of a 1.6% raise for all employees, applied retroactively on top of the average 1% salary increase that almost all employees got at the beginning of the school year, according to a district press release. 

The 1.6% addition will be applied retroactively to July 1, 2024, or to the day an employee began working during this school year. 

The raise is calculated from a 1.6% salary increase, stacked on top of the agreement still needs to be ratified by ACPS employees, and then approved by the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC). District staff hopes to have the new salary schedule on the SBAC’s Jan. 21 agenda, if the employee vote is completed in time, according to the release. 

If the school board approves the salary schedule on Jan. 21, the district plans to include the raise and retroactive salaries in employees’ first paychecks in February. 

 “I appreciate the efforts of the Alachua County Education Association and the district’s bargaining team to reach this tentative agreement,” Superintendent Dr. Kamela Patton said in the release. “I know it was a challenge with all the financial pressures on our district on this year, but I’m glad the negotiators were able to get this done for our hard-working employees.” 

Negotiations have been ongoing since this spring, with calls for higher teacher pay repeated along the way, in the wake of a historically large salary agreement in 2022 boosted by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, and an across-the-board 3.5% salary increase last year. 

This year, negotiations included the elimination of most early release Wednesdays, and when ACPS held the line at a 1.6% increase and refused to apply it retroactively, the ACEA declared an impasse in September, bringing federal mediators into the situation to help find a resolution.