What’s in the Miami-Dade union’s opening bid on pay raises for school teachers?

The Miami-Dade County school district and United Teachers of Dade had a lot of ground to cover Wednesday morning — their first time meeting at the bargaining table since voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax hike, largely to pay teachers more.

Negotiating teams on both sides began their third collective bargaining session this year in high spirits, beginning with celebrating the passage — 71 percent voted in favor — of a four-year referendum that is expected to net $232 million in its first year, of which about $204 million is said will go to 20,000 teachers.

The owner of a home valued at the Miami-Dade average will pay $140 more in taxes, which will be collected in July. The property tax will cost $75 for every $100,000 of assessed taxable property.

But the district and the union must also hash out regularly scheduled raises, tweaks in teacher contracts and healthcare costs as the end of the year approaches.

“We cannot neglect the fact that it’s November and our school folks have not gotten a raise this year,” said UTD President Karla Hernandez Mats.

Those raises, however, were not introduced among the first few proposals from either side. UTD instead proposed how to use referendum funds, asking for a 12.5 percent raise for all teachers, including part-time teachers, substitutes, paraprofessionals and security monitors. Altogether, using last year’s personnel figures, that would cost around $158 million.

The remaining funds, UTD proposed, would provide “salary schedule mitigation supplements to employees harmed” when the district and the union agreed to do away with the grandfathered pay scale following a legislative change, causing thousands of veteran teachers to miss out on huge raises.

Joe Minor, UTD’s director of member advocacy, estimated that about 6,000 to 7,000 teachers were aggrieved in that change. Initial priority, however, would be given to employees closed to normal retirement eligibility. These are teachers who are within five years of retiring, who are either at least 57 years old or have been teaching for 25 years.

The proposal stipulates that supplements from the referendum will include contributions to the state retirement system and will not impact base salary affecting healthcare.

School district officials did not present a proposal for how to spend referendum funding. They did, however, propose removing a salary cap for veteran teachers entering or returning to the school district from neighboring counties.

“We really believe we can recruit and attract experienced teachers into Miami-Dade County Public Schools,” said Dawn Baglos, an administrative director in the labor relations office.

The district also proposed adding five clubs for elementary and K-8 schools to provide more club sponsor stipend opportunities for teachers and added language that would provide supplements for teachers of sight- and hearing-impaired students.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho made a surprise appearance at the bargaining table to reiterate what he would like to do with the referendum funding, including elevating salaries to above the national average, which is $59,660 according to the National Education Association, and “heal hearts” of those mid- and late-career teachers.

He also promised to not pass on rising healthcare costs to the workforce for the third year in a row.

“I believe healthcare is a right,” Carvalho said. “A human right.”

He left the bargaining table with a message: “Maybe I have some surprises.”

No date was scheduled for the next bargaining session. Mats asked if they could meet before Thanksgiving. “I hope so,” Baglos said.

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 4:13 PM.