Dr. Peter Licata took the oath Tuesday morning, sworn in as the new Broward County Public Schools superintendent — and was then pushed straight into the deep end during a school board meeting.
“This is my fourth day on the job and you’re gonna ask me to reinvigorate an entire budget?” Licata asked during a vigorous discussion on giving substantial raises to teachers and principals.
“Broward County Public Schools is allergic to change, our budgets are photocopies of the one we had last year,” responded board member Dr. Allen Zeman.
Zeman is proposing big increases in total compensation for teachers and principals, meaning salary and benefits, to total over $100,000 for teachers and $150,000 for principals by 2025.
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“What do you think the public feedback’s gonna be if we can pay teachers $100,000 in two years in total compensation? Will anyone show up and say that’s a really rotten idea?” Zeman asked during the board meeting.
He said higher property tax revenues, plus more money from the state, plus money from the referendum, equals enough funding to pay for the raises without any budget gimmicks.
“So the salary raise over five years will be 31%, so it’s a pretty substantial raise in the salary,” Zeman said.
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That’s exactly what teachers such as Fania Desinord want to hear. She teaches at Coconut Creek High School and implored the board to support Zeman’s plan.
“As I stand before you, my salary sits at $50,000 per year and this is my 8th year as a teacher. Will I ever be able to afford a house in this county at this rate?” Desinord said.
Every board member and the superintendent supports paying teachers and principals, but there are concerns about long-term budget impact.
“I just don’t want to overextend us, we have the voucher system coming, we have no idea how that’s going to impact us,” said board member Debbi Hixon during the discussion.
“I guess I would like more clarification on sustainability,” board member Jeff Holness added.
The superintendent affirmed his support for the concept but suggested adopting Zeman’s proposal during this budget cycle might be fiscally reckless.
“I think we have an opportunity to do this, I think we can do this, but I think to rush it through would be, it would be non-prudent of us the make such big decisions where it could have residual effects for the long term,” Licata said.
The board agreed with the superintendent, voting to punt the issue to next week.
Zeman wants the district to prepare two budgets, the one currently being finished, and another one to reflect his proposal for pay increases, and then let the board vote on which one it prefers.
Right now the average compensation total for teachers in Broward is $78,000. Zeman says raising that to $100,000 would make Broward County Public Schools the leader in teacher compensation in the entire southeast United States.
