‘We do the work': Teachers union, Broward Schools still far apart in pay raise negotiations

There’s a canyon separating the two sides right now.

The Broward Teachers Union and negotiators from Broward County Public Schools met Friday and it did not go well. BTU is asking for a 9% salary increase. The district is offering a 1.7% raise, which comes from state money, and a one-time 2% bonus.

“We’re going to respectfully reject that offer,” said Anna Fusco, the BTU president, during the meeting.

The union says since teachers are asked to do security and mental health functions, they should be eligible to receive some of the roughly $11 million in unspent referendum money earmarked for mental health and school safety.

“Hell no, you’re darn right we’re gonna ask for it now, we do the work, we do the work, our teachers are asked to be social/emotional counselors, aside from academic teachers and we’re also asked to be safety and security,” Fusco said during the meeting, raising her voice to make her point. “All that adds up to that we are entitled to social-emotional referendum and safety and security referendum.”

“I believe it’s less than $11 million, speaking with our budget department, but more importantly, voters passed that for school safety and mental health,” said superintendent Dr. Peter Licata, who was not at the negotiating session.

Licata said it’s important to keep faith with the voters and honor the intent of the referendum they passed to support teachers, school safety, and mental health resources. Fusco said the district already set the precedent when it gave raises to principals and assistant principals from referendum funds.

“You guys took the money and gave it to bonuses for upper management so we know the money can be used!” Fusco said at the meeting.

I asked Licata whether the union’s counterproposal is dead in the water.

“Absolutely not, we will bring the counterproposal to the board, they’re the ones that direct us on how to move about,” said Licata, who also emphasized that the district wants to reward teachers as much as possible.

So it goes back to the school board for their input, and the longer it takes, the longer teachers go without any salary increase. But as we reported months ago, the average boost from the referendum is $10,600 per teacher, so at least they have that money in their bank accounts as the holiday season approaches.