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After a long wait, Hillsborough teachers will get pay raises

 
Hillsborough County school superintendent Jeff Eakins is surrounded by more than 1,200 new teachers at a welcome event in August, before the start of the 2015-16 school year. Extended talks between the teachers union and Eakins’ administration finally resulted in approval of a contract Tuesday by the School Board. Teachers will receive their long-delayed pay raises soon. [SKIP O’ROURKE  |   Times]
Hillsborough County school superintendent Jeff Eakins is surrounded by more than 1,200 new teachers at a welcome event in August, before the start of the 2015-16 school year. Extended talks between the teachers union and Eakins’ administration finally resulted in approval of a contract Tuesday by the School Board. Teachers will receive their long-delayed pay raises soon. [SKIP O’ROURKE | Times]
Published Jan. 20, 2016

TAMPA — Halfway into the school year, about 20,000 employees of Hillsborough County Public Schools will get pay raises that, for many, recognize work they did last year.

The School Board on Tuesday approved a contract with the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, which represents teachers, teacher aides and other school-based employees.

Teachers will get increases that were negotiated previously as the district implemented a new evaluation system. They'll be retroactive to July 1, the start of the contract year.

For some, it's the $4,000 raise teachers get every three years under their new pay plan. For others it is no raise at all, but credit for a year of service.

In addition, performance bonuses of $1,900 or $2,900 will go to those rated "highly effective" under the evaluation system, which also considers student test performance.

Support workers will see wage hikes of about 6 percent overall. For example: A job that used to start at $9.12 an hour will now pay $9.68 an hour. Instead of making those workers' raises retroactive, the union and district agreed to onetime payments of $275 per worker, reasoning it would be faster to calculate and pay than retroactive raises.

That's not the only thing that has changed in these budget-minded times.

The district will limit the bonuses reflecting the current year's work to a $12.4 million ceiling, or "bucket." Those on the fifth, or highest, level will see bonuses that are 50 percent higher than those on Level 4.

During the negotiations, which began in the summer, the union tried to get retroactive raises for everyone and accused the district of pitting teachers against their lower-paid aides.

But district negotiators held firm, saying they needed to protect the district's reserves, which have been shrinking rapidly over the past four years.

"This has been a really, really tough year," said board chairwoman April Griffin, who asked that the board be given more information before bargaining begins this year.

Discovering the reserve issue when he took over as superintendent in July, Jeff Eakins found district leaders did not realize the true cost of the new pay plan, which was implemented along with an ambitious evaluation system funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The cost turned out to be $65 million, and some teachers were given raises as high as $15,000 a year. Adding even more to the cost were more than $12 million in performance bonuses, which are now required by state law.

This year, district officials say pay raises will add $34.6 million to spending. Eakins said the money will come from cost savings and reserves should not be affected.

As for the new evaluation system, Eakins' administration is working to change the way teachers are judged. Peer observers who now look in on teachers, offer critiques and give them ratings that count for 25 percent of their score will be asked to give only "non-evaluative" feedback.

Tuesday's board vote was unanimous. On the union side, 94 percent of teachers and 96 percent of support employees endorsed the contract. Those numbers likely reflect disappointment from some teachers at the top of the scale who got little to no additional money; and disappointment that the support workers' raises were not retroactive, said Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, the union's executive director.

The two sides agreed to meet regularly on a number of issues — including growing demands on teachers under the district's new discipline system — and to start negotiations by early May.

"We'll be back at the table before the ink gets dry on this," Baxter-Jenkins said.

Contact Marlene Sokol at (813) 226-3356 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.