Broward teachers won’t be getting paid $100K in salary and benefits — at least, not yet
The Broward School Board rejected a proposal Tuesday evening that would have given teachers a nearly $20,000 pay raise in total compensation, after the majority of the board members raised concerns about the budget impact and the board chair called the plan “too aggressive, too fast and too broad.”
The failed proposal — championed and crafted by board member Allen Zeman — would have raised teachers’ total compensation to an average $100,000, and principals and assistant principals’ total compensation to an average $150,000 by 2025. Their total compensation includes their base salaries, as well as their health and retirement benefits.
The board, however, didn’t completely abandon the idea and instead vaguely directed new Superintendent Peter Licata to present a draft of next year’s budget in January that would hike the average total compensation for teachers, administrators and all other staff.
“On our first budget workshop in January we’ll start showing how we can get to the Zeman plan,” said Licata and added with a chuckle, “We’re all going to get shirts made with that, the Zeman plan.”
What was the budget proposal?
Zeman’s proposition could have made the employees of Broward County Public Schools, the sixth-largest school district in the country and the second largest in the state, some of the highest paid in the U.S. and Florida.
Broward teachers currently make an average base salary of about $66,000 and an average total compensation of about $83,000, according to the board’s discussion Tuesday. The average public school teacher in the U.S. earns a salary of $66,745, according to 2022-23 data from the National Education Association.
The school district couldn’t immediately provide similar data for principals and assistant principals.
Why, now, the raise?
Zeman, along with the rest of the board, talked about how teachers have been through a lot and deserved the extra money.
During the pandemic, teachers were thrust into remote learning, and when they returned to their classrooms, they contended with students suffering significant learning losses along with risks to their own health amid COVID-19. Many veteran teachers retired, leaving a flood of vacancies.
Additionally, teachers, like many in South Florida, are facing much higher housing, food, insurance and gas costs.
Luis Rolon, a science teacher at Riverglades Elementary in Parkland, begged board members for more money, before the motion failed.
“I am writing you today to plead to each and everyone of you for a raise for teachers that we can live off of. I’m working two jobs to try to survive in this economy and that isn’t even enough,” he wrote in a public comment for the board workshop.
And classrooms have become a political battleground in Florida, making it harder for teachers to do their job. Just last week, the Florida Department of Education, which governs K-12 public schools, generated an uproar when it approved new Black history standards that suggested some slaves benefited from their enslavement. This comes on top of book challenges by parents and a new law that restricts the way that teachers and students can use their preferred pronouns in schools.
READ MORE: Teachers enraged that Florida’s new Black history standards say slaves could ‘benefit’
Where was the money going to come from?
Zeman relied largely on an about 9% increase in state funding, an approximate 13% increase in taxes connected to higher property values and a 100% increase in the county’s 2022 referendum, in which voters agreed to pay more taxes for teacher and employee supplements.
He combined that revenue growth with some budget cuts, including:
▪ Cutting conferences and professional development travel by 30%
▪ Cutting technology contracts by 15%
▪ Cutting contracted services by 15%
▪ Filling only half of the vacant clerical and administrative positions
Why did the School Board reject Zeman’s plan?
Zeman’s plan died Tuesday after board members voted 5-4 against it. They spent more than four hours discussing the issue at a board workshop in the morning and a following special board meeting in the afternoon. In total, they met for nearly 12 hours.
Zeman, along with Vice Chair Debra Hixon, a former teacher, and board members Jeff Holness and Daniel Foganholi, voted in favor of the pay raise.
The board’s Chair Lori Alhadeff, along with board members Torey Alston, Sarah Leonardi, Nora Rupert and Brenda Fam, shut it down. All dissenters said they liked it partly, but couldn’t subscribe to all of it and didn’t have time to fine-tune it before the state deadline to approve this year’s operating budget in September.
Fam said she’d like to see a component that considers seniority and pays veteran staffers more.
Alhadeff said she couldn’t cut a vague line like “IT contracts” without knowing exactly what contract she’d be cutting.
One of Alston’s sticking points: He wants the district to consider creating its own police force soon and doesn’t want this to impact that. Currently, the school district has agreements with multiple cities and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office to provide school resource officers on school campuses.
Leonardi, also a former teacher, said: “I support some version of this, but I think there needs to be more deliberate conversation.”
How can you voice your opinion?
Dozens of teachers had rallied behind Zeman’s plan since he first mentioned it last week in a South Florida Sun Sentinel opinion piece..
“We can’t afford to live in South Florida with our current salary!!! Please help us before we are forced to leave!” Rolon, the Parkland teacher, wrote in his comments.
If you, too, want to share your opinion about the school district’s finances, you can attend the first school district’s public budget hearing this year. The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1 at the Kathleen C Wright Office in Fort Lauderdale.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated only the Broward County Sheriff’s Office provided school resource officers on school campuses. Multiple municipalities, and the county, provide them.
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
