Polk County Public Schools and an employee union are at an impasse in negotiations over state funds intended for teacher raises.
The two sides even disagree on whether Oct. 1 was the deadline for reaching an agreement.
The dispute involves the district’s disbursement of state funds allocated by the Florida Legislature as a Teacher Salary Increase Allocation. Lawmakers designated about $101 million in this fiscal year’s budget for increases across the state’s 67 county school districts.
Polk County’s share amounts to $3.4 million, after passing a required portion to charter schools, Superintendent Fred Heid said in a memo to district staff.
In negotiations with the Polk Education Association, the district offered raises of $542 a year for eligible teachers. Under state law, the allocations can only go to teachers with at least two years of full-time experience in a public school. Paraeducators, secretaries and other non-teaching employees are not eligible.
On Sept. 26, Polk County Public Schools offered a memorandum of understanding that would also provide up to 15 consecutive paid workdays of parental leave within 30 days of a birth or adoption and one additional personal leave day for every employee.
The district gave the union until Sept. 29 to respond, said Stephanie Yocum, president of the PEA, which represents about 70% of employees. Union negotiators met Sept. 28 to discuss the offer and polled their members, who overwhelmingly voted for continuing to negotiate, Yocum said.
On Sept. 30, union leaders met with Heid and repeated their call for 5% raises. At that point, Heid declared that the two sides had reached an impasse, a status that requires mediation to settle the dispute — though negotiations can continue in the meantime.
A bargaining session was scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 1 at the Jim Miles Professional Development Center in Lakeland. If no agreement is reached, the dispute will eventually come before a state magistrate.
District cites state deadline
Heid sent a memo to all district employees Sept. 30. He said the district remains committed to delivering the state allocation to teachers as soon as possible.
Acknowledging that the state restricts which employees can receive the funds, Heid wrote that the district offered increased benefits for all employees — the parental leave and extra paid day off.
“Despite the addition of these benefits, the Polk Education Association (PEA) declined our TSIA proposal,” Heid wrote. “While we are disappointed, we respect the bargaining process and remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached.”
Heid said that he gave PEA a deadline of Oct. 1 to reach an agreement, saying the district was required to submit the results of bargaining to the state by that date.
“Because state law requires distribution of TSIA funds by Oct. 1, the District has formally declared an impasse specific to the TSIA allocation when PEA leadership shared that they would be denying our proposal,” Heid wrote.
Yocum responded with an email to PEA members accusing Heid of sharing “miscommunications” about the process. She disputed that the state set a deadline of Oct. 1 for districts to disperse TSIA funds. If no agreement is reached by that date, the Florida Department of Education allows districts to submit a statement detailing what steps it is taking and offering an anticipated date for completion, she wrote.
The department also stated that funds will not be distributed until a district submits a plan that the state determines is compliant with state law, Yocum wrote.
“The TSIA funds are negotiable,” Yocum wrote. “The district has only presented one proposal for disbursement of these funds, the flat, equal amount to every eligible teacher. While we want each of our teachers to receive this money and more in a timely manner, we are incredibly disheartened that raises for our support staff and newer teachers have not also been prioritized.”
Heid wrote that the district has been seeking to negotiate over TSIA funds since June and the union has refused. Yocum disputed that characterization.
Since the Florida Legislature created the TSIA funding in 2020, the district and union have always included the raise money in larger negotiations covering all employees, Yocum said. The union seeks to combine the restricted state money with district funds in calculating raises for all employees.
This year is the first time the district has insisted on “bifurcated” negotiations, Yocum said.
Union: Political pressure at work
The state restrictions would block about 1,230 teachers with less than two years of experience from receiving the TSIA money, Yocum said. Including non-teachers, almost half of the PEA’s bargaining unit would be excluded, she said.
The district’s offer yields an increase of about $45 a month before taxes for eligible teachers, Yocum said.
The parental leave would be available to fathers as well as mothers, a district spokesperson said.
“People don’t need another day off,” Yocum said. “They need money in their wallets, and parental leave is a must. This district must enact parental leave, and we will be fighting for that in open book (bargaining).”
The PEA polled its roughly 9,000 members about the district’s offer, and of those responding, 77% wanted the union to continue pushing for 5% raises for all employees, Yocum said. Only 1% suggested accepting the district’s TSIA offer.
Another point of contention is the number of district employees. Yocum said that the district is using a “moving target” by adjusting upward the number of staffers. The district has about 13,800 employees, a spokesperson said.
The impasse comes in the context of pressure from state officials for unions to accept proposals from school districts. In July, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to all districts in which he blamed unions for delaying teacher raises.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the same assertion during a news conference with Kamoutsas.
“There’s nothing in my mind that says this isn’t political,” Yocum said. “On their end, they’re trying to keep cover off of them (the Polk County School Board) from a very hostile Department of Education and a very hostile governor.”
Bargaining covers pay for the current academic cycle, which would be retroactive. Last year, the district and union did not agree on a contract until February. That deal provided raises of up to 7% for school employees.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk district declares impasse with union in bargaining over raises for veteran teachers
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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