The School Board of Alachua County approved a new salary schedule and contract for teachers and educational support employees on Friday.
Employees will receive a 3.5% raise, in addition to their automatic step increase from the beginning of the school year. The step increase varies for different employees but is usually about 1%.
The district will retroactively apply the increase as far back as July 1, 2023, extending back to the start date of each employee’s contract.
“We’re very pleased that we’ve completed this process and that the agreement we reached with the ACEA was approved so overwhelmingly by the employees, who do so much for our students, families and district,” Superintendent Shane Andrew said in a press release. “Our payroll and finance teams will be working very hard to get the raises and retroactive pay into our employees’ hands as soon as possible.”
The 3.5% increase will cost the district an estimated $5,667,851, most of which would go to teachers, ACPS’s executive director of human resources David Shelnutt told Mainstreet in December. The automatic ‘step’ increase cost about $1.54 million.
The Alachua County Education Association (ACEA) held its ratification vote for the salary and contract language on Wednesday, according to Shelnutt. The agreement passed with 2,230 “yes” votes and 31 “no” votes. The ACEA represents both instructional and educational support professionals (ESP), such as bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, paraprofessionals and office staff.
The ACPS job posting website lists the starting pay for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree as $45,717.
I’m glad four board members respect the teachers and staff. It’s very insulting for Board Member Certain to vote against the raise.
rectroactive? sigh…
BTW – if this increase is across the board, that means the folks that were already had huge salaries will be getting huge increases when compared to those who are further down the ladder and need the increase.
For instance, someone with a $200,000 salary will see an increase of $7,000 while someone with a $50,000 salary will see an increase of only $1,750. Certainly, that helps but it grossly widens the gap between the positions and should raise questions about who is actually being represented in those negotiations.
Tina Certain voted against the raise.