Representatives from Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) and the Alachua County Education Association (ACEA) held a bargaining meeting Thursday evening, with a focus on laying out ground rules and setting tentative dates for future joint salary negotiation meetings for non-instructional, or Education Support Professionals (ESP), and instructional staff.
“Tonight, we will be going over ground rules and setting up dates, because we want to really get moving in full force,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Deborah Terry said while addressing roughly 20 attendees inside the District Office Conference Room.
Beginning the 2025-26 collective bargaining meetings with joint salary negotiations is something ACEA President Carmen Ward said has never been done before.
“We’ve always negotiated instructional language and ESP language, and then joint salary,” said Ward, who also serves as the instructional chief negotiator. “But given the climate that we’re functioning under, we want to have no fodder for saying that there are any delays coming from our…”
“I agree,” Terry said before Ward could finish her sentence.
Terry said the district received a letter from Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas saying the state would like ACPS and ACEA to have salaries negotiated by Oct. 1 and, if not, to have a plan in place.
Terry and other representatives discussed possible dates for future joint salary negotiation meetings. As a result of that discussion, meetings are tentatively scheduled for Sept. 11, 18, 25 and 30, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the District Office Boardroom (620 E. University Ave., Gainesville).
Ward said the ACEA would also like to have days in between the dates listed above for a subcommittee of roughly four or five people from both parties to meet.
“There needs to be some work on the salary schedules, and we also see that there needs to be work on the salary footnotes,” she said.
The ACEA and ACPS agreed to start with just one subcommittee meeting for the time being. That meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 16.
As the bargaining meeting ended, Terry said she is hopeful that the two parties will have negotiations that see them working and meeting together for the same purpose.
“I know our team is excited about being here, and we’re hoping we can get them [the negotiations] done as soon as we can,” she said.
Ward echoed these comments from the ACEA side.
“Yes, I think we will have a much shorter bargaining season this year than we did last year,” she said.
The 2024-25 bargaining season could be described as a long, contentious one for both ACPS and ACEA.
After negotiating for more than a year, with the union even declaring an impasse in talks, representatives from both sides ultimately reached an agreement on a 1.3% raise for teachers in April.
The School Board of Alachua County voted to ratify the 1.3% raise less than 10 days later.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.