
After a ratification vote earlier this week, Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) instructional staff voted against a tentative salary agreement and contract language for the 2024-25 school year. Education Support Professionals (ESPs) successfully ratified their salary agreement and contract.
Because the teacher vote failed, the Alachua County Education Association (ACEA), which negotiates the contract and raises for the collective bargaining units, will need to start the process over from scratch, according to ACEA president Carmen Ward.
“The people spoke that the deal is not acceptable to them,” Ward said in a phone interview.
The instructional unit ratification failed with 517 “yes” votes and 827 “no” votes.
District spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said ACPS has nearly 1,900 teachers, so not everyone voted.
The ESP unit ratified its agreement with a wide margin of 730 “yes” votes and 279 “no” votes.
If the School Board of Alachua County approves the agreement during its regular meeting on Jan. 21, eligible employees will receive a 1.6% salary increase applied retroactively to the start of the 2024-25 school year, in addition to a step increase that varies based on how long an employee has worked for ACPS.
ACEA’s last proposal before declaring an impasse in September was a 3.2% raise for all employees, in addition to the step increase, which does not exist for a first-year teacher, and is only $25 for a second-year teacher, according to Ward.
Negotiations for the 2024-25 school year agreement started early, in February 2024, shortly after the district approved a 3.5% raise in addition to the step increase. After 12 negotiation meetings, Ward said the union declared an impasse because the district was offering half of ACEA’s proposed raise and refused to apply it retroactively.
“[ACPS] really didn’t seem to be doing bargaining with us in a way that supports education and supports educators,” Ward said. “Because there was no reason on earth for them to say they were not going to pay retroactively when they budgeted to pay retroactively. They would just keep that money and play hardball with us at the bargaining table.”
The drawn-out negotiations necessitated multiple sessions with a federal mediator and resulted in a tentative agreement for a 1.6 % salary increase, retroactive to July 1, 2024, or to the day an employee began working during the school year.
That agreement is the one approved by the ESP unit this week and voted down by instructional personnel.
Now that the instructional unit has refused to ratify the agreement, Ward said a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to decrease early-release Wednesdays to once a month should be dissolved.
Ward said early release Wednesdays provide important planning time for teachers, and the MOU was only meant to last until the ratification vote, which would have put the limitation into permanent effect if approved. Since the teachers did not ratify the agreement, Ward said the contract did, too, and the parties must revert to the original contract language that includes early release Wednesdays every week.
The district has stated that the limitation of early release Wednesdays will remain in effect at all elementary schools, as well as A. Quinn Jones School, High Springs Community School, Sidney Lanier School and the Duval Early Learning Academy.
An ACPS press release on Thursday stated the district will work with union leaders to establish a new timeline, but Ward said Friday that she had not yet heard from ACPS.
The Board decides your slice of the budget pie after they take care of the bureaucracy they created. They have agreed to pay an interim Superintendent $ 22,000 monthly plus benefits for this year and the next full school year. This is incredibly insulting to the rank and file of your instructional staff, the Teachers. Remember, they are the blood and muscle that makes it all work.
Give them one of the top salaries in the State first and then work the budget towards the top. It’s way past time for this to happen in our School System.
Actually, that seems like a good idea.