After 11 months of haggling, the Broward County School Board and the Broward Teachers Union have agreed on a new contract.
The board on Tuesday voted 6 to 3 to approve the contract, but before the vote, board member Torey Alston said there was “blatant corruption” in the process, saying the union endorsed board members who pledged to support the package, accusing unnamed colleagues on the board of colluding with the union.
“School board members were talking to the president of the BTU potentially about items discussed in closed sessions, I think a third party needs to examine the communications that occurred between the board members, staff, and the BTU president,” Alston said during the school board meeting.
“That’s false!” shouted Anna Fusco, the union president.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
“Quiet in the audience, that is your warning,” responded board chair Lori Alhadeff.
“Our warning? He gets to make an allegation like that?” Fusco said.
“This is the biggest example of pay to play that I’ve seen probably in this state between a union and school board members,” Alston went on to say.
Local
Fusco stepped to the public speaker’s podium and said, “Let me make this clear, there’s no pay to play in anything, it’s called bargaining, negotiating.”
The contract gives the teachers anywhere from a 3.42 to 4.56% raise and 10 planning days, and the starting salary is now $50, 266. Teachers also receive about an 11% supplement from the bond referendum passed by voters last year.
“This makes us incredibly competitive with our neighbors,” said Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata.
The superintendent is worried about sustainability, though, because nearly $20 million in federal COVID relief money ends in September. Those dollars account for more than half of the salary raise in the contract, so the district will have to find a way to replace that money.
“So it is scary, it’s very scary, considering lower enrollment, facilities that need repair, making sure we compensate our staff so teaching gets done, so if you’re asking me if I stay up at night worrying about the budget, I do,” Licata said.
Beyond salary, Licata is trying to find ways to entice college students to become teachers, such as tuition reimbursements. He said he’s working with local colleges to set up such a program for education majors.
“Locally, if we can do something that makes us different and out of the box, we’re gonna see our aging population leave in our teaching ranks but also a new crop of teachers come in so we have that nice, steady flow," he said.
