Management’s proposal: “a real kick in the teeth”

Management returned to the bargaining table last Wednesday with their counterproposal to the SC/TA’s last salary proposal. Things did not go well.

As you will recall, the SC/TA proposed a 5.75% across-the-board increase for teachers (on top of the .5% already received), with the restoration of the BA+30 and MA+45 — and a $2.50 per hour across-the-board increase for all classified employees.

Management’s counterproposal included a $2,500 increase for teachers paid on the Performance Salary Schedule (PSS) who earned a Highly Effective evaluation last year. All other Performance teachers and ALL Grandfathered teachers would receive only a $1,875 increase.

Isn’t that a real kick in the teeth?

So much for thanking us all for suffering through COVID; hours of IEP writing; added paperwork and training requirements; more assessments; and less support with managing student discipline matters and more and more demanding parents.

*We turned out in force in 2018 when negotiations stalled. We’re ready to do it again, if necessary.*

For classified employees, the district offered a $2 per hour across-the-board increase. The Board did agree with adding back the BA+30 and MA+45 — but ONLY if we agreed to their language eliminating teacher driven planning time.

If planning time is not teacher driven, is it really planning time? That is clearly not acceptable to us. For a benign administration, this gang certainly seems capable of offering some rather malignant proposals.

As I have said before, I have never seen our staff as disillusioned and unhappy as they are now. Despite that, the School Board and administration have chosen to insult them with wholly unacceptable proposals, while they sit on an all-time record fund balance and have been adding administrative positions and increasing their salaries like never before in our district’s history.

I have attached the names and salaries of the district’s administrative staff for your inspection. When the chart refers to Supplement, that amount is added to their salary. If management fails to offer more reasonable proposals after the break, we will get deeper into how they have been spending our precious financial resources on their pals and general administrative largesse.

This was certainly not the wisest fight for the district to pick, with a referendum vote a few months off. We will be planning picketing activities and job actions in the days ahead. In the meantime, enjoy your week off and time with your family!

Barry Dubin, executive director of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association — *Author Barry Dubin is executive director of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association.*

(top photo shows massive SC/TA picketing lines from 2018)