Polk County Public Schools

School District, Teachers Union Reach Tentative Contract

February 2, 2010

Contact:
Ron Ciranna, J.D.
Assistant Superintendent, Human Resource Services
Polk County Public Schools
863.534.0729

Mark Grey
Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
Polk County Public Schools
863.534.0542

José Farinas, SPHR
Director of Employee Relations, Human Resource Services
Polk County Public Schools
863.534.0731

The Polk County Public Schools and The Polk Education Association, Inc. (PEA) have reached a tentative contract agreement for teachers, paraeducators and educational support personnel. This agreement meets the goal of keeping staff employed during this economic crisis and rewards employees’ hard work. The agreement includes salary increases despite restricted financial resources. The school district and union believe this agreement honors the important contributions of teachers, paraeducators, and clerical staff.

“The number one priority during the last couple of years during the negotiation process was to keep our current staff employed,” said Ron Ciranna, assistant superintendent for Human Resource Services.  “At the same time, despite uncertain economic times and limited fiscal resources, we were able to include a salary increase.”  

Ciranna and José Farinas, school district director of employee relations, said the agreement was a collaboration between Superintendent Gail McKinzie, the school board, PEA and district staff.

“We were able to have an open dialogue in the recent months to put together a fair and equitable settlement that is within our budget limitations, and at the same time allow the district to remain fiscally sound,” Ciranna said.

“What we are seeing in this settlement is the result of a six-month process aimed at building credibility, authenticity and transparency in the bargaining process,” Farinas said.

The 2009-2010 tentative salary agreement is retroactive to January 1, 2010 and disburses $4,490,523 for teacher salaries, $814,035 for paraeducators, and $369,492 for educational support personnel. These numbers exclude benefit costs for each employee group.

The tentative salary agreement calls for each of the three PEA employee groups to move to the next level on their respective salary grid. The starting teacher salary remains at $35,000 while teachers at the top of the salary schedule, having more than 24 years of experience, had their salaries increased by $500 from $54,675 to $55,175 retroactive to January 1, 2010.

This is an average of a 1.91% salary increase for teachers, 4.25% for paraeducators and an average of 2.87% for educational support personnel.

Paraeducators and educational support staff with the most years of experience and at the top of their respective salary schedules would also receive $500.

Other tentative contract changes include:

• An agreement to emphasize the importance of building a step increase, should the revenue be available, as part of the budget adoption process that will take place this spring
• Authorization of an extra hour at the daily rate of pay for elementary teachers teaching students the entire school day
• An additional 1/6 pay for secondary teachers teaching students the entire school day
• An agreement that if the state of Florida fails to provide funding for National Board Certified Teachers, the district would supplement the difference up to $1,000
• An agreement to establish ten (10) one-hour early release days for students beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, with seven days to be used for teacher planning and three days for staff development

The tentative agreements will be posted here on the Polk Education Association’s Web site. Upon ratification and school board approval, the represented employees will receive raises retroactively to January 1, 2010.

“Our commitment to this process allows us to address the many additional remaining issues throughout this coming year,” Ciranna said. “We believe this will lead to better solutions and ultimately better education of students in Polk County.”